All striving that comes from human reasoning will not bring the desired harvest. Our journey must be Spirit-empowered fueled by receptivity. Life in the Spirit starts with receiving and we never stop receiving—season to season, day to day, moment by moment.

To produce the fruit of love, we need Love Himself. We must receive for ourselves. Apart from Him, our love is conditional and never enough. We can’t give out what we have not received. 

We were saved by receiving. But for the most part, we stop receiving. We simply continue to trust in our own strength and insist on our own way. But we will harvest and eat the fruit of lies. Each time we tend toward self-effort and self-saving, the seeds we plant and cultivate produce lawlessness and reap a harvest of injustice.

If we turn to God and receive His invitation to plow that hard ground in our hearts, the soil can be softened and the rocks removed. We can receive the good seed of all that is right and just. The harvest is enduring love.

Now—today—each day is the time to seek the Lord. Keep planting good seeds in ground that has already been plowed. Be responsive to God’s Spirit when you recognize hard ground that is not producing a harvest of love. 

The good seed of righteousness (all that is right and just) can only come from Him, not by our striving to prove ourselves. It is a gift He is ready to pour out upon us like falling rain from Heaven (see Hosea 10:12-13).