Are You Eating Your Seed?

When Alan and I moved to Manchester over 20 years ago to plant a church we took a huge step of faith, particularly with trusting God for our finances.

We already knew the importance of tithing, of bringing the first 10% in to God’s house, there was no question about that in our mind.  However, our giving was very limited.  Each month, we budgeted an amount to give and we gave as directed.

However, we wanted to give more, we wanted to be generous.  In planting a church, we could see so many needs around us and were frustrated that we seemed to have so little to give.

One day we were challenged by the passage in 2 Corinthians 9 about generosity and in particular verse 10:

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 

There is so much in this one scripture:

1. God supplies seed to the sower. A farmer does not eat his seed. A farmer knows that in order to reap a harvest, he must first sow his seed.In sowing his seed, he knows that he will have more.
2. God supplies bread for food.God supplies what we need to eat – both physically and spiritually. He knows our every need and if we trust Him and continue to tithe, then there will be food in the house (Malachi 3:10)
3. God will increase your store of seed – God will increase the amount that you have to sow but he can only do this if you don’t eat your seed.
4. God will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness – as you sow more, and receive more, you can give more, bless others more and accomplish more for God.

Alan and I wanted to give more but we realised that instead of giving our seed we were eating it!  Here’s how:

We were believing God for our daily bread, literally on some occasions.  We would receive a gift, often just as the cupboards were empty and we needed to go shopping.  We would set 10% aside, our tithe, then I would go to the shops with the other 90% and buy food, thanking God that he had supplied the “bread for food” that we needed. 

We were eating our seed.  God began to show us that a farmer knows that he needs to keep back some of his harvest as seed.  If all he does is eat his whole harvest, he won’t have any seed to sow.

So, we began asking God how much of the 90% do we need to keep as seed, and then who we should be giving to.  Then with the remainder I went to the shops.

Suddenly, we were in a position to give more.  To be honest, at times it was a step of faith because naturally we wanted to hold on to as much as we could to feed our family.

But then something shifted, as we sowed our seed, trusting God, we started to receive more seed to sow:

Verse 11 goes on to say:

You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

God wants us to be generous, in fact Paul tells us that God loves a cheerful giver.  It is such a joy to be able to give to others.

So, are you eating your seed?