Introduction:

In Genesis 8:21, God smelled a soothing aroma. It was from Noah’s burnt offerings after he had just exited the ark God commanded him to build. The earth was a new place; new growth, new life after the Lord had just destroyed every living thing with water, except Noah and his family and all the animals in the ark with him. 

It is at this point we are introduced into a fundamental promise of God that has shaped our world ever since, spanning several millennia. It is so fundamental it’s impossible to imagine our lives without it. Yet, so brief in length, it packs a lot of powerful insights to help us successfully navigate our world. Join me over the next few days as we unpack this promise. It’s my prayer that the Holy Spirit guides us into unforgettable truth that turbocharges our lives. Amen.

Genesis 8:22 (NKJV) “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.”

Growing up in southwestern Nigeria in the late eighties and nineties, there was this popular hymn that was a chorus of every church around the corner. “This world is not my home, I’m just a stranger passing through,” it went, “My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue; The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, And I can't feel at home in this world anymore.” 

You can imagine the attitude these lyrics engendered: a group of believers who felt no sense of ownership toward this earth and offloaded all responsibilities and cares to “unbelievers.” After all, this isn’t home and they are “strangers” on earth. Interestingly though, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior and are given life, we don’t immediately all get raptured into heaven. Or do we? We are still left on this earth, which means there must be a purpose why God didn’t snatch us all up at once. This point is proved by a parable Jesus shared in Luke 19 where He compared the kingdom of God to a certain man departing on a journey and “called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.”

We can therefore see from Genesis 8:22, and this passage in Luke, that God has always intended for the earth to remain for a period, and, accordingly, has set up some principles, some cycles, some laws to last for the entirety of that duration. What then are we to do while the earth remains? Better yet, how are we to occupy till He comes? Jesus said not even the angels of God know the day or hour when the end shall come (Mark 13:32). I want you to ponder this today: How are you occupying while the earth remains? 🤔

Prayer: Lord, help me to fully understand Your purpose and plans for my life. There’s a reason You’ve kept me alive at this time, in this year, in this community. Show me and guide me in what I must do to fulfill Your purpose while the earth remains.

In my middle and high school days, there were several iterations of an “agricultural” class I took. Well, I was compelled to take it. It somehow manifested in different years as different courses. The last I remembered, it was called “Agric.”  It could also have been a nickname we the students gave the class. I can’t quite tell now. But one thing is unforgettable, the many times I got to get my hands dirty in the soil. It was in those classes I learned of annual, biennial and perennial plants. 

We grew all kinds of things in our little farm. And now in hindsight, it made sense why those courses manifested themselves in the different forms they did throughout those schooling days. It was impossible to fully learn the cycle of seedtime and harvest or its reward if we never came back to partake in the harvest. Some things took a year to harvest (the annuals), some two years (the biennials), and some three years or more (the perennials). 

This same law of seedtime and harvest applies to our lives, and not just plants. There can never be a harvest where or when we have not sowed. As believers, we often cry to God for miracles when we have either been ignorant, neglectful or just apathetic about our seedtime. We demand God to give us a harvest when we either sowed poorly in our seedtime or never planted at all. Yet, God has said while the earth remains, this law shall always persist. Ecclesiastes 11:4 captured this so well:

“Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.” ‭NLT‬‬

So, a thought I’ll leave you with today is this: If your life is the soil, what seed are you planting in it today? The great thing is that it’s never too late to begin planting if we haven’t been planting at all or even if we’ve been planting the wrong seeds. Your harvest is dependent on the seed and the amount of seed you’ve planted in your seedtime. Don’t worry, some might take longer to bear fruit, like the perennial, but harvest has been guaranteed by God. 

It’s important we do what is within our control, which is the sowing, and let the Lord of the harvest, God, fulfill His promise on that which we have sown. And by the way, when I say sowing, I don’t mean some gimmicky “Sow $100 into this word, this ministry, today and see what God does in your life this week.” Rather, tangible and measurable efforts you are making toward a desired goal. For some of you, seed is those days and nights you’re grinding at a postgraduate school to get that Masters or PhD you know will catapult your career. 

Prayer: I want to be fruitful Lord in all areas and things You’ve called me to. Help me to identify the seeds I ought to be sowing at this time and grant me the grace to reap and not miss my harvest. Amen.

Oh I know some people that like the cold. Or should I say are indifferent to the cold. But I’m not one of those people—layering up and feeling frost on my face is no fun at all. I shiver even as I write this. On the other hand, I know what extreme heat is like as well and that’s no picnic either. So what’s one to do? 

Yesterday we discussed the importance of taking advantage of our seedtime. I also hinted that often our seedtime is inconvenient or “imperfect.” For example, some fruit trees, like apple and pear trees, are often planted in the late fall or early winter when the trees are dormant and the weather is cold. This allows the trees to establish roots in the cooler weather and prepare for growth in the spring. The consequence of this is that if I wish to harvest apples or pears, the time for me to do the planting is not when the weather is perfect (warm and sunny), but when it could be brutal (cold and frosty), particularly if you’re someone like me who doesn’t like the cold. And often God has us in these cold planting seasons because of the sweetness that awaits us at harvest time, which usually are in times of heat. If we see the cold as not heaven-sent or a bother, we miss the refreshing apple juice God wants us to have when the weather is hot. Proverbs 20:4 bears this out: 

"The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing." KJV

The same can be said of the heat—remember how at times the sun can shine so bright you’d rather stay in the cool rather than go handle business? No one loves sweating profusely in non-gym attire, or maybe some do. But if we know things must be done when it’s cold and when it’s hot, what are we gonna do? Notice how God didn’t mention warmth here? Warm weather would have been a great convenience for most of us—a nice sweet middle ground. 

This has me thinking, and maybe could be a thought for you today: What opportunities are in the challenges you’re facing today but can’t see because it’s cold or hot?

Prayer: Give me the grace, the capability and capacity to be diligent with what You’ve committed into my hands. Help me to be productive and persevere in all weather conditions. Amen. 

Are you noticing how all the seasons we have been discussing so far are interlinked? For me, it shows the perfect wisdom of God in that one feeds into the other and no one step is out of whack in this highly choreographed dance God has designed. 

Winter reminds us of the cold and seedtime, just as summer reminds us of harvest and the heat. 

Check out this passage in Proverbs 10:5. 

"He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame." KJV

And then this in the same book, Proverbs 26:1. 

"As snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not seemly for a fool."

In both passages, we see how summer and harvest is described as a time for productivity and diligence and how winterish experience in summer is highly problematic. For many of us, we are in the summer of our careers, our youth, our relationships, entrepreneurial pursuits, basically, the prime of one thing or the other for which we are well positioned. Summer is prime time, it’s the reason we see the World Cup and Olympics (summer games) being played in the summer months and school children of all ages out on break. 

(I personally think summer can also be dicey just as it’s splendid; to the extent there’s a lot of temptations, lots of distractions and plenty of opportunities to even miss out on the harvest of the seed we’ve planted. Harvest does indeed look like work we have to do and not fun like a boat ride in the Florida Keys or the enclaves of the Hamptons, which makes the distractions of summer the more dangerous to us).

And just as well, we said quite a bit about the cold yesterday, so I won’t dwell on this much today. But we see how winter prepares us for summer—we recognize summer because of our winter experience. You may be in winter right now, and are asking God why, but be rest assured it’s a time of preparation for the harvest that’s coming in the summer—so long as you don’t let it make you lose faith in what God has in store for you. 

Prayer: I don’t want to lose focus nor faith in my winter or summer. Help me against all distractions that seek to make me unproductive and ordinary when You’ve called me to the extraordinary. Amen. 

It’s the final day of our discussion and I hope you’ve gotten a truth that transforms your life in the coming weeks and months. And it’s particularly fitting that we end on Day and Night, seeing it’s the most visible rhythm that governs our lives, literally everyday. 

Heck, the 24 hours that make up day and night is how we know to celebrate our birthdays every year, mark milestones and anniversaries, and so many other crucial timestamps. While science can somewhat explain this mystery, we nonetheless see the visible hands of God at work.  A timeless God has put us in time for His pleasure till we shall enjoy eternity with Him; which the more makes this passage in Psalm 90:12 poignant:

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” KJV  

How then are we taking stock of our days and nights? Are they all just one patchwork bundled together and in no discernible trajectory to a goal or vision God has laid in our hearts? Remember what we said at the beginning of this devotional about the mandate to occupy till He comes. 

Many times we wake up every day without giving it a second thought; we believe the morning will surely come and so will the evening. But this doesn’t happen by chance, as our anchor text of Genesis 8:22 tells us. It’s the promise of God that has it so. If we then are so sure of this promise, why at times do we waver at other promises God has given us? If the day and night have not ceased, why do you believe God’s promise to prosper you and give you a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11) is in jeopardy or bound to flounder?

As the writer of Ecclesiastes writes in chapter 3:1; To everything there’s a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. I encourage you to Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)! Break out of whatever fear is holding you back today and maximize this season you are in. And to quote from Ecclesiastes (11:6) again:

“In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.” ‭ESV‬‬

It’s my prayer for you that your mind be strengthened in Christ and you bring down into this earth, while the earth remains, all that the Lord has blessed you with in heavenly places. 

Prayer: Thank You Lord that all Your promises in Christ Jesus are yeah and amen. I believe You. Help me to grow in my knowledge of You. Increase my stature in You. Give me boldness for Your mercies are new every morning. Amen.