This is a rice seed. It came from a field where my grandpa raised rice in the 1940’s. It’s pretty small but God uses the least likely to teach His Principles. These Principles are timeless. It’s called Wisdom.

Do you find yourself working harder & longer for less? Do you find it harder & harder to get ahead? If this sounds familiar, welcome to the club. But did you know this is not a new phenomenon? No. God spoke to His people some 2,500 years ago in Haggai 1:5-6, “Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

In verse 9-11 God continues with, “You hoped for rich harvests, but they were poor. And when you brought your harvest home, I blew it away. Why? Because my house (God’s Temple) lies in ruins, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, while all of you are busy building your own fine houses. It’s because of you that the heavens withhold the dew and the earth produces no crops. I have called for a drought on your fields and hills—a drought to wither the grain and grapes and olive trees and all your other crops, a drought to starve you and your livestock and to ruin everything you have worked so hard to get.” The people in Haggai’s time were busy focused on themselves and not rebuilding God’s Temple. Sounds like today, right?

So, what is the answer. Jesus told us in John 12:24-26 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies (planted in the soil), it bears much fruit.” Paul gives us more understanding about the dying seed in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Simply put, it’s death to self!

God was calling in Haggai, as Jesus calls us today through His Word, to plant your seed for His Kingdom. We are called to share the Good News, point to His Glory…to be Kingdom Builders. And when we do, “the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:23

Only God can take a dead seed and transform it into a plant that produces 100-fold or more. This is how valuable you are to Him. But it all starts with Him being FIRST IN EVERYTHING. What will your 2026 harvest be?