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1 Corinthians 3:8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. 

Almost every morning I make it a habit to pass out tracts during my morning walk. It’s a good way to share the Gospel while greeting people, and getting some exercise.

I feel incredibly privileged to live in a village where there is not only liberty to pass out tracts, but people are happy to have them.

While I’m grateful for the opportunity, rarely does my morning walk result in sharing the Gospel directly.

Sharing out tracts is what you might call a “planting ministry” where the seed of the Gospel is handed out to as many people as possible. Sadly it’s easy to become disillusioned with planting though because there isn’t much obvious fruit.

Often Satan encourages us to set aside the planting ministries for something that makes a “deeper impact” (a direct witness, one on one Bible Study, large outreach). There’s definitely a need for these ministries, but it shouldn’t replace the day to day planting of God’s Word in hearts.

1. Because those large ministries usually come through the faithful planting of God’s Word
2. God’s Word will do its work
3. And along the same lines it isn’t my job to change hearts (that’s God’s job). My job is to keep planting

Last week I handed a tract to man named “Bill” (not his real name) and he stopped me. “Wait a minute I want to show you something he said.” After a few moments he reached into his pocket and produced a tract that I’d given him at least a week before.

Bill explained that he took that folded up tract and put it into his pants every day so that he could pull it out and read it again when there was time.

Though the Lord has yet to save Bill, I was grateful for the reminder planting ministries (while not as exciting) do make an impact on lives.