The peasant farmer had yet another disappointing crop.  It looked like it was going to be another year of tightening the belt for him and for his family.  Talking to the village rector one Sunday morning after church, the man, who was known for being lazy, lamented that once again God had not seen fit to bless his crops this season.  The clergyman said to him, “Brother, the Lord doesn’t usually bless farmers who don’t make the effort to spread manure on their paddocks.”

Bingo!  What a delightful response to a man who expected God’s blessing without any effort on his part.  In fact, did you know that this is the solution to an age-old problem in religion: God does not bless the crops of farmers who can’t be bothered putting fertiliser on their fields?

Let me put it to you this way: there are two principles in life that are often seen as contradictory but which are really meant to be complementary.  The first principle is that God controls and guides everything that happens.  Jesus taught that not even a sparrow falls to the ground unless God wills it.  The second principle is that our choices have consequences and if we don’t make good choices we end up wearing the sad results.  God created us as beings who are responsible for their actions.

The problem is that these two things are often thought to be contradictory.  If God is totally sovereign over all things – if nothing happens apart from His ordaining – then we are ultimately not responsible for what happens.  Wrong!  Let me use a simple illustration to make the point.

I’ve always been a keen gardener and I’ve learnt by experience the teaching of the Bible that only God can give life and growth.  I can plant a seed but I can’t make it germinate.  I can water my vegetables but I can’t make them flourish and deliver a crop.  God does that... working through the laws that He originally built into nature He gives life and growth.  But God giving the growth does not absolve me from dealing wisely with the seeds and properly nurturing the plants.  The beans I planted would never have germinated if I had left them in the cupboard.  I would never have produced any beans if I had planted them in the ground – half a meter deep.

The point is that a good farmer will do all he can to ensure a good crop.  Much energy is devoted in planting and cultivating.  But a good farmer will also realise that it doesn’t all depend only on his efforts.  An infestation of blight can destroy his potato crop.  A swarm of locusts can make short work of his crop of chick-peas.  So that farmer makes every effort but he also gets down on his knees at night asking for God’s blessing on his labours.  In fact he recognises that he and God are in partnership together – what we call a covenant relationship.  He works as if all the farming depended totally on him alone.  But he also knows that God is the other partner in this farming business and He puts his trust totally in God’s loving care for him.

There is a parallel to this in the spiritual realm.  I cannot convert anyone.  If I did manage to make someone into a Christian they wouldn’t remain Christians for long.  I can’t change troubled lives.  Only God can do those things.  He can change the meanest and most selfish person into a gentle and caring saint.  And He does.  God is totally in control of the whole process of people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.  But God doesn’t do that by zapping people from heaven.  He does that as people read the Bible or attend a church service.  He does it as He puts that person in contact with a caring and informed Christian.

It’s sad that there are far too many people today who are like that peasant farmer with the failed crop.  They lament how bad things are and that God’s blessings seem to keep missing them.  Their lives are a bit of a mess, with their relationships falling apart or their careers in tatters.  Well, just remember – the farmer who didn’t work at spreading the fertiliser on his fields missed out on the blessing of a good crop.  Whatever faith God has put in your heart needs cultivating and nurturing... only then will you experience God’s blessing.

John Westendorp