A Helpful Prayer

What kind of seed are you planting?

Gal. 6:7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
Gal. 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Recently, after hearing a reference to this verse, I was spurred to make this a constant prayer of my life: “Lord, help me not to sow to the flesh but to sow to the Spirit.”
Oh, so many applications came to mind. When I am faced with temptations like wandering eyes or a wandering mind, I pray for God’s help in sowing to the Spirit. Corruption is not to be desired. Corruption is what temptation hopes I won’t notice. But it is inevitable when one “sows to the flesh.”

And in a positive, proactive sense, I pray for God to help me continually to walk in the Spirit and live my life in a way that pleases Him, i.e., to sow to the Spirit. We are currently studying the book of Jude and learning about the instruction to “keep ourselves in the love of God.” Jude is clear, the way to do so is by “building yourselves up in your most holy faith, and praying in the Holy Spirit…[and] waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Those three responsibilities on my part are “sowing to the Spirit.”

I find that I’ve begun to pray this prayer on a very regular basis. And I believe God is answering and helping me to “sow to the Spirit.”