What Seeds Are You Planting?

If we live well today, then we have no reason to worry about tomorrow. What we refer to as the past today was the present yesterday. This means that our actions today shape what we will become tomorrow.

I once wrote that “the past should be in the past; what matters is the present.” This was meant to communicate that we should not dwell on what we cannot change. The deed is done and cannot be altered; what we can change is our present!

How we choose to live today will help ensure a peaceful tomorrow. The seeds of our past actions form the fruits of our present experiences. This is why some believers still suffer from afflictions despite their faith and love for God: they are facing the consequences of their past actions.

The Word of God states that when a person turns away from their old ways, their sins will be forgiven, but it does not say that the consequences of those sins will be removed. It may seem that those consequences become lighter due to God’s mercy, but they do not disappear entirely. When we sin, nature takes its course immediately.

God forgives us when we repent and bestows His grace upon us as His children. However, the reality remains: sin and good deeds are like seeds. As soon as they are committed, they begin to sprout.

For good deeds, the reward starts to build up and take effect. For sins, the consequences (or punishment) also begin to take shape. When one repents of their sin, God, in His infinite mercy, “cuts” the sprouting seed. He stops the consequences from growing deeper, effectively halting the accumulation of repercussions because the sinner has repented. But what happens to the seed that has already grown? What about the consequences that have already taken effect?

The Bible says, “Whatever a man sows, he shall reap.” Here’s an analogy: a child sees a burning fire and decides to touch it. Upon doing so, he gets burned. His mother admonishes him for approaching the fire. Having experienced the pain, the child chooses to heed his mother’s advice and stays away from fire in the future. However, does the pain and injury from the burn disappear immediately just because the child avoids fire now? No! The pain remains until the wound heals, and the scar may last a lifetime.

In this analogy: FIRE = SIN; MOTHER = GOD; FIRE INJURY = CONSEQUENCES OF SIN. Just as with the child and the fire injury, it is the same with sin and its consequences.

I repeat: the reason some believers suffer despite their faith and love for God is due to the “pain” from their past “sinful lives,” which is yet to fade away.

So, what do we do? Should we worry about our past mistakes? Should we pretend that our past never existed, as if nothing happened before we became believers, and then blame God for abandoning us, after He promised to forgive us when we turn from our sins?

God’s word is true, including His declaration that a man reaps what he sows. All we can do is continually plead for God’s mercy upon our lives. His mercy can mitigate the consequences of our past mistakes.

Let us take this to heart: we must be conscious of our actions today, for our present will become our past tomorrow. Our deeds today determine what our lives will look like in the future. Do good today and reap good tomorrow; do evil today, and evil awaits you tomorrow.

It is a choice we all have to make. Let us choose wisely.