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The Daily Devotional
Saturday, July 18, 2026
Seeds We May Never See Grow
“Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season if we don’t give up.” — Galatians 6:9
Reflection
There is a quiet kind of faith required to plant a seed.
The one who places it into the soil does not see a tree. There is no shade, no fruit, no branches reaching toward the sky. There is only a small seed disappearing into the darkness of the earth. For a time, nothing seems to happen at all.
Yet beneath the surface, hidden from human sight, life is beginning.
This is part of the encouragement Paul offers in Galatians 6:9. He understands that doing good can become wearying, especially when we cannot see any evidence that our faithfulness is making a difference. We pray and wait. We serve and wonder. We encourage someone and never know whether our words were remembered. We plant seeds of kindness, truth, mercy, and love, yet the field before us sometimes appears unchanged.
Paul says, “Let us not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season if we don’t give up.”
On July 18, 1817, the English novelist Jane Austen died in Winchester at only 41 years of age. She could not have known the enormous influence her writings would eventually have. Later that year, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion were published posthumously, and it was then that she was publicly identified as the author of her novels.
She had planted seeds through words, but much of the harvest came after her voice had fallen silent.
There is something deeply moving in that. We do not always live long enough to see what becomes of everything we have faithfully planted. Some prayers may be answered after we are gone. Some acts of kindness may bear fruit in another generation. A teacher may never know what became of the quiet student who was encouraged at just the right moment. A grandparent may pray for a child or grandchild for years without seeing the full answer. A few compassionate words spoken during someone’s darkest hour may be remembered long after the speaker has forgotten saying them.
A person planting a young tree knows this truth well. The sapling may be little more than a thin trunk with a handful of leaves. The one who digs the hole, settles its roots into the earth, and pours water around it may never sit beneath its mature shade. Yet years later, children may play beneath its branches. Travelers may rest there on a hot afternoon. Birds may build nests among its leaves.
The planter may never see any of it.
But the shade is no less real.
I think about this often in my own devotional ministry. Day after day, I write Christian devotionals and Scripture reflections, sending small seeds of faith into the world through the internet. Most of the time, I do not know who will read them. I do not know where the reader lives, what burdens they are carrying, what prayers they whispered the night before, or whether one sentence, one Scripture verse, or one prayer might reach them at precisely the moment they need it.
Those words now travel far beyond my home in Deming, New Mexico. They cross state lines and national borders. They enter homes and hearts I may never know. And recently, another seed was planted through an article I wrote for a Christian magazine in New Zealand.
There is something humbling about sitting quietly in New Mexico, writing words that can cross an ocean and reach people I will probably never meet. I may never know what fruit, if any, will come from a particular devotional or article. Perhaps someone will be encouraged to keep praying. Perhaps another person will find hope during a difficult season. Perhaps a Scripture verse will take root in a heart and continue growing for years.
I may never see it.
But seeing the harvest has never been the requirement for planting the seed.
Our responsibility is to plant, water, pray, love, encourage, serve, and remain faithful. The growth belongs to God.
Perhaps you are a parent who has prayed for years and wonders whether anything is changing. Perhaps you are a caregiver whose daily acts of kindness seem unnoticed. Perhaps you are a teacher who keeps encouraging students without knowing where their lives will lead. Perhaps you are a friend who continues showing compassion to someone who cannot yet receive it. Perhaps you are a writer whose words seem to disappear into silence. Perhaps you simply wonder whether the small good you do each day makes any lasting difference.
Do not underestimate what God can do with a seed.
A seed does its deepest work where no one can see it. Roots grow in darkness before anything green breaks through the soil. God often works in much the same way. What appears to us as silence may not be inactivity. What looks like delay may not be abandonment. The field may seem empty while something living is already stirring beneath the surface.
So ask yourself today: What seed can I faithfully plant, even if I never live to see it grow?
Send the note. Speak the kind word. Offer the prayer. Forgive. Give generously. Share the Scripture. Encourage the discouraged. Teach the child. Visit the lonely. Serve quietly. Keep doing good without demanding immediate proof that it matters.
The measure of a faithful life is not fame, recognition, applause, or immediate visible success. It is obedience to God.
Some of the most enduring fruit of our lives may appear only after we are gone. Some words may continue speaking. Some prayers may continue shaping generations. Some kindness may be passed from one person to another until its origin is forgotten by everyone except God.
No faithful seed entrusted to God is meaningless.
We may not see the entire harvest, but God sees the seed, the soil, the hidden roots, the coming rain, and the generations yet to come.
Our calling is simply to keep planting and to leave the harvest in His hands.
Prayer
Gracious God, thank You for the privilege of planting seeds of faith, love, kindness, prayer, truth, and encouragement in the lives of others. Give us strength when the harvest seems delayed, patience when growth remains hidden, humility when we are allowed to see the fruit, and faith when we are not. Keep us from growing weary in doing good, and remind us that no act of love offered in obedience to You is ever wasted. Use our words, our prayers, our service, and even the smallest acts of faithfulness in ways we may never fully understand. Help us to trust the work beneath the surface and to rest peacefully in Your perfect timing, knowing that the harvest belongs to You. Amen.
Devotional by: Kenny Sallee, ThM — Deming, NM, USA
The Bible texts are from the World English Bible (WEB), which is a Public Domain Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version (ASV) of the Holy Bible, first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament. It is in draft form and is currently being edited for accuracy and readability. All rights reserved.
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