When the Past Comes Back

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7

D.L. MOODY
Whenever I hear a young man talking in a flippant way about sowing his wild oats, I don’t laugh. I feel more like crying because I know he is going to make his grey-haired mother reap in tears; he is going to make his wife reap in shame; he is going to make his old father and his innocent children reap with him. Only ten or fifteen or twenty tears will pass before he will have to reap his wild oats; no man has ever sowed them without having to reap them. Sow the wind, and you reap the whirlwind.

ERWIN LUTZER
We always reap more than we sow. Out on the farm, for every bushel of wheat my family sowed, we expected to reap twenty times more. That also applies to when we sow sinful choices and lifestyles. David’s sin of murder and adultery is well known. God said to him, “The sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife” (2 Samuel 12:10). Although David repented in sorrow and returned to the Lord, his family did not—four of his sons ended badly. David reaped a terrible harvest for his sin.
Yet, God showed David grace. Despite killing her husband, David did marry Bathsheba, and Solomon was born. Solomon was blessed of God despite his own sinful lifestyle and doublemindedness. He built a great temple and left us much of the Bible’s wisdom literature, including the book of Proverbs.
Committing sin reaps a harvest of more sin, and though the past cannot be relived, it can be redeemed. Grace in the midst of failure, hope in the midst of despair, and wheat in the midst of wild oats.

PRAYER
Lord, I believe with all my heart that you can take my painful circumstances and my open wounds to turn them into healed scars.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS
Have you reaped the fruit of any past sins?
If so, what should you have done differently?