Protecting Your Harvest
As Christians, we spend a lot of time working FOR a harvest but know very little about how to protect ourselves AFTER the harvest. Many of us have experienced seasons of success by making life-changing decisions, seeing hard won victories, and watching prayers come to fruition—only to see the harvest suddenly stolen because we don’t know how to protect ourselves after we’ve succeeded.
The Bible describes a harvest as a season, or a culmination of a process of growing and cultivating. This could be a relationship, friendships, financial gain, parenting, or overcoming destructive habits.
In Biblical days a HEDGE was planted around a vineyard to protect the harvest. This tight hedge kept rodents, bugs and danger from the promised yield of fruit. Hedges protect a harvest.
In the book of Job we see a story about hedges. In Job 1:8-12 we see Satan speaking to God about His servant Job. Satan tells God “anyone would be faithful to Him with the kind of hedge built around all Job loved.” Job was a committed man of prayer, and a hedge of protection was around his life because of it. The concept of praying a HEDGE of protection is something both God and Satan know works.
So how do we protect our harvest and pray for God’s hedge around us?
There are four types of hedges we can count on when protecting our harvests:
1. The Hedge of Peace: Philippians 4: 8-9
The most common way the devil tries to ruin your harvest is through your mind and thoughts. Every argument, fear, dissatisfaction, envy, or pride enters our mind first, and then our actions. If your mind is hedged with peace, it keeps destruction away.
2. The Hedge of Understanding: Psalm 119: 33-37
This Psalm describes how God gives understanding in two powerful ways:
He keeps our hearts from dishonest gain
He keeps us from looking at vanity
3. The Hedge of Angelic Protection: Psalm 34: 4-7
Sometimes God sends an actual angel to protect us or show us the way. This happens repeatedly in the Bible!
4. The Hedge of Hope: Romans 15:13
Hope is what keeps us in a productive state that continues to care for our harvest, so we...and what we are praying for, can be nourished and thrive.
Gutsy Faith Challenge: Begin to pray a hedge around your harvest. What are you working for, believing for, or trying to nurture? Pray with a hedge in mind and ask God for new knowledge about the harvests in your life that are bearing fruit.
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