Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

"If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will growâ€"perhaps it all will."¹

At the turn of the last century, Julia Woodward went to Ecuador as a missionary to minister to a tribe of some 15,000 Indians. In her halfâ€"century of work, she saw only a handful of these people accept the gospel and come to Christ. However, she taught the people to read and write and began to translate some of the Bible into their language. After 50 years of faithful service, she retired and was replaced by Mr. and Mrs. Henry Clawson who, after a relatively short time, saw almost this entire tribe embrace the Christian faith and become Christians. This was made possible because of the seed sown by Julia Woodward.

As another has said, "Don't ever underestimate the power of a seed. In 1959, there were one-million Roman Catholics and 600,000 Protestants in China. That may sound like a lot, but when you compare it to a population that is rapidly approaching one billion, you understand what a tiny seed that represented. When China closed its doors to the outside world, many people began to wrap a burial shroud around the Christian church in China. They said that it would never survive. In 1979 China again opened its doors to the West and to the rest of the world. And a strange thing had happened. That tiny seed 20 years earlier had taken root. The number of Roman Catholics during those dark years rose from one-million to three-million and the number of Protestants rose from 600,000 to three-million. The church in a time of persecution and hardship had grown 53% in a twenty-year period!"²

You and I may never be a Paul or a Julia Woodward, but we can keep sowing seeds of the gospel and of God's love. Here an encouraging word ... there an encouraging word to a friend in need ... little acts of kindness all along the way ... praying with one who is discouraged and/or hurting ... being as Christ to every life we touch.... Such seeds are never wastedâ€"only God knows the eternal influence and impact of such. As Solomon wrote, "Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will growâ€"perhaps it all will."

Suggested prayer. "Dear God, please help me to keep on sowing the seed of Your Word and the gospel in the way that I live and act, and through well-spoken and timely words. Please use me to help others to find You and/or come closer to You. Use my life as a living investment in eternity. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

1. Ecclesiastes 11:4, 6 (TLB).
2. www.eSermons.com

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