Equally effective

Does God ever teach you through your own prayers? I was praying for a friend who's on a mission trip this morning when I prayed something for their team that was not from me! I stopped and pondered what I had just prayed, amazed! This was a revelation! 

I was praying for effectiveness in ministry, and praying against discouragement, should their natural eyes not see what progress they were making. My team in Australia struggled with this, as we had no salvations during our trip. The majority of our ministry was conversations about God and who He was, planting seeds in the college students of Brisbane. But it came to me to pray that they would know that the seed planters are just as effective as the harvesters. When I prayed it, I stopped to think about what I had just said. The seed planters are just as effective as the harvesters. I think a lot of times when we talk about planting a seed in a person, we basically think of it as a nice way of saying, "You didn't do all that much," or, "You didn't make any progress with that person, but someone else might later." 

Just think about a farm. Since I live in Indiana, I'm thinking of corn. Imagine two different farmers are working a single plot of land. One's job is to plant the seed, and the other harvests it at the end of the season. Let's say the first farmer observes other farmers planting seed, and, seeing no difference in the ground after the farmers plant their seed, decides not to plant any seed at all, saying to himself, "This is a waste of time. I'll just relax and let the other farmer harvest later." 

Why doesn't this scenario work? Because there HAS to be seed. The seed is that of which the harvest is composed! And the thing about the two farmers is this: if they both do their job, they are equally effective. If one skips out on his job, it is just as devestating to the crop as if the other did.