2 Timothy 2:6

The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits.

Paul gives Timothy a third picture.

Not a soldier this time.
Not an athlete.

A farmer.

And every farmer understands something the rest of us often forget. You plant long before you see anything grow.

A man can walk into a field in the spring and spend hours pushing seed into the soil. When he finishes, the ground looks almost the same as when he started. There is no harvest yet. No fruit. Just dirt and patience.

But the farmer knows something.

Growth is happening even when he cannot see it.

Paul tells Timothy that ministry often works the same way. You plant truth into people’s lives. You water with prayer and encouragement. Then you wait.

And sometimes you wait a long time.

There are churches that almost gave up just before the harvest came. There are marriages that might have healed if patience had lasted a little longer. There are parents who stopped praying for a son or daughter right before the seed finally began to grow.

The farmer keeps working because he trusts the process.

He knows that seed buried in the soil does not stay buried forever. One day something green pushes through the ground. One day the field that looked empty is full of life.

Paul’s message to Timothy is simple.

Serve like a soldier.
Run like an athlete.
But wait like a farmer.

Because the one who keeps planting and watering will eventually taste the fruit of the harvest.