Proverbs 13:21 || You Reap What You Sow

You Reap What You Sow Zac Poonen Adversity pursues sinners, But the righteous will be rewarded with prosperity. Proverbs 13:21 Again, we apply this verse spiritually. It is basically the same thing as the Bible says in Galatians 6:9, and it's a theme that recurs again and again in Proverbs: what we sow we will reap. Usually whatever we sow, we have to reap ten, thirty, sixty, or one-hundred times as much. Whatever it is, it's going to be much more than what we have sown. And here's a simple principle that we must keep in mind: that we cannot avoid sowing. Let me use a very simple illustration. Suppose I'm a farmer and I sow potatoes at the time of sowing, and then near harvest time I say, "I don't want potatoes. I want tomatoes." And I kneel down and I have prayer meetings, fasting and prayer, and I say, "Oh God, please give me tomatoes. Do a miracle and give me tomatoes at harvest time." You're not going to get tomatoes, despite all the fasting and prayer. You can say, "Lord, please forgive me for sowing those potatoes." God will forgive you, but what will come forth is still potatoes. We mustn't forget that even when God forgives us there is still a reaping of what we have sown in the past. Let me give you an example of how "adversity pursues sinners.". Here is a young man who has indulged in reading dirty, sexual novels and read pornographic books and seen pornographic pictures - and indulged in them, and indulged in them, and indulged in them, and indulged in them, and indulged in them - say up to the age of twenty-five. And here's another young man who avoided all that and was a morally good person. Both were not converted. Then both got converted at the same time at the age of twenty-five. And you find this person who had not indulged in all this pornographic literature has an easier time later on as a Christian with his dreams and his thoughts than that other person who indulged in it so much. Both are forgiven, but one person is constantly harassed in his thoughts and his dreams by the potatoes that he has sown for so many years. This is why you have to be very careful what you read and what you look at. Each book you read and picture you put in your mind is like a seed sown there. It's going to come back 10x later on in life; later in life when you wish that you could be free from some of these things. God forgives you, but the reaping is still going to be there. It's not going to be tomatoes, it's going to be potatoes even though you're forgiven. And that's the thing that should put a fear into our hearts about what we sow, because it says, "Adversity pursues sinners." This harvest of adversity sort of runs after the seed of sin that was sown. But it can be the other way around too, if we sow good. When we fill our minds with the word of God and more of the word of God; when we fill our minds with something good; and we're thinking good thoughts about others; and we avoid all that's evil - good choices also produce a harvest - a harvest of good. "The righteous will be rewarded with prosperity." So forgiveness is not everything. We can be forgiven and still be tremendously harassed by the memory of our past life, and there we can think what a wonderful inheritance it is for young people to grow up without all this sexually polluting literature and dirty thoughts. I'll tell you this, ten years from now, some of you who are in your teens today will be thankful if you listen to what you read today. If the Lord tarries, you'll be very thankful - when you become a wholehearted brother or sister - that you kept your early youth pure from all the filthy things that others in your school and college are indulging in. Be careful in this area. ----------------------- Read The Book "The Way Of Wisdom" By Zac Poonen: https://www.cfcindia.com/books/prover... -----------------------