“Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy! He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.” Psalm 126:5-6
These verses are an encouragement to me. If you’ve hung around me for any length of time, you know that my past few years I have had some stuff. There have been things that have broken my heart. Now don’t get me wrong, I know that if I lined it up next to some others it wouldn’t compare. But still, while I have had many blessings over the last few years, I have had some hurts and heartbreaks. But one thing I had to realize, I could crawl in a hole and let it make me bitter and sad and despair or I could keep getting up and keep laying it down and keep praying and keep hoping and keep trusting God for some changes and for some things and at times just trusting Him to hold my heart through it. I can’t say I have always wanted to keep doing the work it took to dig and to learn but in some ways it has been my survival.
These verses tell me what is sown in tears will reap with shouts of joy. The picture that one of my commentaries gave me is the farmer who goes out with just a little seed, maybe even barely enough to hope for a harvest. Yet as he plants and sheds a tear he also prays for a bountiful harvest. Because he does the work with his seeds he will reap a harvest.
Our hearts are much the same way. When our hearts are broken, if we sow, yes even with tears and turn to Jesus and ask Him for direction, or just to carry us through, the harvest will be a closer relationship with Him and sometimes yes answers. The reason I say sometimes is some hardship really doesn’t have an answer or an end. For the Mom who has lost a child. The only real answer she wants is for that child to be here, and she knows that is not going to happen. But Jesus can carry her through. For the precious soul with a diagnosis that she knows will cut her life on earth short, she wants healing that may or may not come. But Jesus can give peace and carry her through. And sometimes it is direction you need in a hardship. I believe when that is the case if we keep crying out to Him that Jesus will show the way. Sometimes it’s a life that needs to be rebuilt or a relationship that needs to heal and I believe that Jesus can redeem.
“You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?” Psalm 56:6
I believe that if God will take my tears and bottle them up, it is to water the garden of my seeds I plant. You see he will take our tears, but we still have to sow, if we will come to Him and dig up the soil of our hearts and study His word and learn and lean into His heart, He will water our garden with our own tears and we will get the harvest of shouts of joy. I believe this because deep in my soul, as I have come to know Him more and more I know that He takes my tears and He is making something beautiful out of them. And I will shout for the joy of knowing Him. The harvest for my soul is Him!
Restore 