Open Your Eyes

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

OPEN YOUR EYES

John 4:31-38

31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."  33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" 34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, 'Four months more and then the harvest'? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying 'One sows and another reaps' is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor." 

NIV

The truth for us here is all about is only bringing people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ but to actually harvest them for Jesus. Although being a witness does mean that we can only tell what we have seen, heard or experienced, there is also a responsibility of leading them to accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Sowing seeds is a great thing, sharing the gospel is the sowing of the seed, sharing what Jesus has done for us is sowing the seed. Living a nice life is not sowing any seeds, as we are just living hoping someone might recognized we are a Christian and then ask us how they can be so nice as we are. Now it is also true that if we go around wearing our Christianity on our shirt sleeve but are not really, really nice to everyone all the time, we are certainly not a very good witness by our life. But the point Jesus is making here is that we have to actually harvest people. We simply cannot be content being a witness or a sower, we have to harvest as well. Now some of us need to sow, and some need to harvest, so we can be glad together. Jesus is the ultimate harvester, he harvests the souls of men, but by our bringing people to Jesus we participate in the harvest. The question we have to ask ourselves is how many people have we actually effected, or sown the seed correctly so that it will be harvested? How many have we harvested? Do we thing inviting them to hear a sermon prepared for believers will bring them to salvation? Do we think if we witness to them, someone will come along and invited them to accept Jesus? Perhaps we all should sow and we all should be able to reap as well. We only have to look around the see the people that are ripe for the harvest. Yes we might get a lot of rejections, but we must remember that is their choice, to reject Jesus. True, they are rejecting the way we believe, but that is no reason to keep our faith to ourselves. We need to open our eyes.