The good news is we don’t have to do monumental works. We just need to plant seeds – a simple prayer, a word of encouragement, work on memorizing one scripture. A small gift to missions. Our faith is not in our power or the size of our seeds but in God’s character:

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. GA 6.9

You would not think that we who believe in Jesus would grow weary of doing good. He’s been so good to us. When we do good it brings him joy and he rewards us. Yet Paul warned the Galatians not to grow weary in well-doing. Why?

It often feels like nothing happens when we do good.

We usually don’t reap immediately. We can be tempted to ask, Why am I denying myself and doing all this work? We keep giving to the church, yet we’re constantly financially tight. We keep asking God to save our teen yet he shows little interest in God. We can think, I’ve served in Children’s ministry 15 years and no one has thanked me once. Or, I constantly try to bless my husband yet he never appreciates me.

Sometimes when we do good things get worse.

Jesus healed and taught and his reward was torture and death on a cross. Joseph faithfully served his Egyptian master who tossed him unjustly into prison. It seems the more Moses obeyed God the worse he was treated. His own people said this to him:

“The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.” EX 5.21

After God used Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt, they turned on him again:

They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? EX 14.11

Moses’ reward for helping his people was their constant grumbling:

And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” EX 16.2-3

Talk about doing good and things getting worse and worse – the more Moses served God, the more Israel grumbled against him. He must have felt like quitting so many times.

We can be tempted to grow weary of doing good because our seeds seem small and powerless

We can think what good will it do to give $5.00 to missions? We pray, then think what good did that do? I have prayed for suffering people and felt like my prayer went up in the air about 2 feet then fell to the floor.

God assures us our prayers are powerful even though they don’t feel like it

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. JA 5.16-18

Our prayers may not feel like they have great power but God assures us they do. Then God mentions Elijah the prophet, who prayed it might not rain for 3-½ years and boom – no rain. He prayed again and it rained and the earth was fruitful. Talk about power. Elijah is a super hero. But here’s the point: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. He was no different than us, a mere human. But he prayed fervently and God answered because the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

The good news is we don’t have to do monumental works. We just need to plant seeds – a simple prayer, a word of encouragement, work on memorizing one scripture. A small gift to missions. Our faith is not in our power or the size of our seeds but in God’s character:

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? NU 23.19

We must leave the timing to him – in “due season” we shall reap. It is often in this life, but often in the next.

Those who sow in tears
SHALL reap with shouts of joy!
He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
SHALL come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him. PS 126.5-6

So don’t grow weary in doing good. Remember, the seeds we sow are powerful. Something good really is happening even if we suffer initially. Our seeds will bear fruit in God’s timing. We WILL reap a harvest in God’s perfect timing, in his “due season.”

Mark Altrogge has been the senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Indiana, PA for over 25 years, and is the author of many well-known worship songs such as “I Stand In Awe”, and “In The Presence”. This article first appeared on his blog and is used with permission.