Ever feel like your efforts for the Lord are fruitless? Do you sometimes wonder if your labor makes any difference?
Consider the testimony of Luke Short. As a teenager in England he heard the well-known Puritan pastor John Flavel preach. The sermon seemed to have no effect on Luke and he spent a life apart from the grace of God. He moved to America where he lived out the rest of his life as a farmer.
One day, still working in the fields of his Virginia farm at the age of 103, Short sat under a hedgerow and began to contemplate his long life. As he thought about the sermon he had heard EIGHTY-FIVE years before, he was moved to call on Christ for mercy and was converted.
Our sight is limited, and we don’t always get to enjoy the results of our efforts. God’s work transcends our brief lifetime and the ultimate results of sowing seed are up to Him.
Flavel finished his sermon and his life without ever knowing the fruit of his labor. Had he evaluated his effectiveness in the immediate, he would have seemed a failure. God’s measure of value is the eternal.
The season in which we are called to labor may not be the harvest. A faithful servant can simply take delight in being true in the time and task God has given.
