Leveraging You Reap What You Sow

So if the principle of reaping what you sow is at work in the background of our lives every day (and it is), how do we leverage it for good? If there is an area of your life where you are not where you should be, chances are you have sown and reaped yourself into that position in some capacity. Remember, we are where we are today by the choices made in the past. But the good news is, we will be where we are in the future by the choices we are making right now.

I mean, if we find ourselves in debt, usually it is because we have been irresponsible with our credit (of course, there are always exceptions). If we have been using credit unwisely, not saving, and we have no money, we don't go, "Oh my, I'm upside down in debt. I wonder what happened?" We know, don't we?

But there are some cause-and-effect situations that are not as obvious. So if you are somewhere in life where you don’t think you ought to be, and maybe you don’t even think you deserve to be, Andy Stanley gives a couple of suggestions that you can do to leverage this principle of sowing and reaping.

First of all, take responsibility for that which you are responsible. If a pie chart represents one hundred percent of the responsibility for a situation, ask yourself, "What is my slice of the pie?" While your companion, your kids, your boss, even your health may own a large chunk of the pie, chances are, you have some responsibility for the situation. Are you really taking responsibility for the portion for which  you are responsible?

Secondly, begin to do the things you should have been doing all along. Paul wrote in Galatians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” So you own your slice and you start doing what you should be doing. And here is where the principle of sowing and reaping works to your advantage: just like you reap way worse than you think you deserve, in due time, the rewards you receive for doing good are often bigger than you deserve as well.