What Does it Mean to Sow in Tears

Scripture says "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy" Psalm 126:5. What does that mean? How does it relate to living through a difficult season? I propose that the difficult season, painful as it is, offers a unique opportunity to trust God on a different level. Your tears are precious to God.  Don't let them go to waste - sow them.  

Transcript

Hello, my name is Tiffany, and welcome to the podcast Working on Amazing. This is the podcast where we talk about the work that it takes to rebuild an amazing life.

And I'm specifically using that word rebuild because we're designed for women who feel like they're starting over in the middle of their life. Now, a few different things can lead you to that point where it really feels like you're starting over.

For me, it was divorce after a 20-year marriage. For my sister, it was the unexpected death of her spouse. But I think the common thing here is when all your plans, all your hopes and dreams for the future have gone up in smoke.

And it really does. It feels like you're starting over. And that feels itchy, to say the least.

It feels overwhelming. But I'm here to tell you, you are not alone. You're actually in the right place.

Welcome. I am so glad that you're here. Now, if you'll remember, when we first started, I said there were five areas I focused on when I rebuilt my life.

I focused on my spiritual health, my mental health, my physical health, my financial health, and growth and goals. And I said that each episode would fall into one of those five categories.

So the past couple of weeks, we've been talking about financial health, and ways to save, and ways to earn extra money. So today, let's circle back around to our spiritual health.

And I want to talk about something that brought me a great deal of comfort when I was going through my dark season. And it's this idea of sowing in tears and reaping in joy. Now, this is a scripture, and we can find it in Psalms.

It's Psalms 126, verse 5 and 6. And it says, Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.

Okay, what does that even mean? And how does that relate to us when we're going through a dark time? What does that mean?

I'm going to do my best to explain it. I heard a teaching on this when I was in a difficult season, and it, like I said, brought so much comfort to me. I had heard, I think, the scripture growing up.

I was not unaware of it, but it had no meaning for me. I had no grid, no place to put it. It just seemed like an odd scripture.

Okay, so let's kind of get the context of what it would mean to sow in tears. So what this is talking about is back in this day and time, right, there would be famine, different things would happen.

So if you were sowing in tears, what it meant was that you were taking that seed, and instead of eating it, instead of feeding it to your children, you have to hold back enough to replant.

You have to go sow it in the field, and hopefully the next harvest will be better than the last, and we'll have plenty. But it's really hard to say, we can't eat this. We have to invest it into our future.

We can't eat this. And even though what's going on right now is so hard, it's even harder, because part of what we have to eat, we can't eat. We have to sow.

And so they would sow crying and weeping, because they knew that that, what they were sowing into the ground, could have been food. It could have sustained them, but it wouldn't have lasted, right? It would have sustained them for a few days.

But if they sow it in the ground, it can produce more and make more of an abundant life, if the harvest is good, right? So they're crying because they're doing without, and their children are doing without.

They're sowing the seed in the hopes, in the belief that the harvest will be better. So it says you sow in tears and you reap a harvest of joy. Well, what does that mean to me?

How do I relate that to going through a difficult season? And the idea is that we cry. We cry tears when we are going through a hard time, right?

And I would say that when you're in a difficult season, that it's a season, right? It's not the way you spend your entire life. It's unusual and it's painful because this isn't the norm.

And sometimes when we're in a season that isn't the norm, when we are shedding tears and we're in a season of heartbreak and heartache and just I don't know what to do, that is unique.

And how we handle those seasons that are just different from our everyday season, I think that matters a lot, right? And so the Bible even says in Psalms 56-8, it talks about how God records our tears. You know, God counts our tears.

So our tears are precious to God. They're recorded. And so when we cry, our tears, especially when we're in this unique and unusual season, they're kind of like seed.

And so everything, we're in a season where the harvest isn't what we thought it was going to be. We're in a season of lack, maybe lack in a relationship, lack in what has happened. We're in this season where things did not go the way we planned.

We do not have enough. And how we handle that is so important. It matters.

It matters not only to us. I believe it matters to God. You don't live in a season where you can constantly, oh, life is wonderful.

Let's be happy, clappy. We go through seasons like that where everything's really good. But when you trust God, when everything is broken, that's different, right?

When you have a season where it hurts so bad, all you want to do is cry and complain and fuss, and you hold on and are faithful, there is a different level to that than when you hold on and are faithful, when everything's great, wonderful.

Does that make sense? So the way we react, the way we position ourselves in this season when everything is really bad is important. And in our reaction has the ability to make a huge impact in our life, in our future, okay?

So when we're really upset, we can cry and feel sorry for ourselves. And in my opinion, that's kind of like eating the seed, like everything is bad. I know we don't have much left.

It's all falling apart. I'm going to eat this handful of seed that I have left and let it be my last meal. I'm feeling so sorry for myself.

Or we can sow our tears. How do we do that? What does that even look like?

That's a great question. So I think that it means complete and total trust in God. So I'm going to explain to you how it looked like for me.

And then maybe that can give you a grid of what I'm talking about. So I heard this teaching, a teaching like this, about sowing in tears and reaping in joy. When I was in a very dark season, my marriage was falling apart.

I found out this stuff, and it was like I was trying to fix it, but it was very clear that it wasn't really going to be able to be fixed. It wasn't a matter of just forgiveness. It was a matter of so much more.

And there were so many factors. And I struggled with that down deep, really, really, really wrestled with this and struggled with it.

So my kids were really young, and they were in school, and I was still taking them back and forth to school at that age.

And at that time, I thought it was so important for them to leave my car, when they got out of the car to go into the school building in the morning, that they had had a really good morning.

Because I couldn't affect or have any impact on whether or not they had a bad day at school. I had no way to influence the rest of their day. I could only influence how it started.

So to me, it was just a really big deal. I would get up and I would make them breakfast, and then they got to pick different short YouTube videos. We'd sit on the couch and watch them together.

We'd get ready. We'd get in the car. We'd play music.

They would go back and forth. It was always the upbeat. And I would do like receipt dancing in the car.

I was trying to get them just upbeat and happy. I wanted them to leave with the best morning, best mood possible because you don't know what's going to happen in the day.

So I just tried to get to my mindset, what I was like as a mom in this season in my life. So I would do that. And every day, this happened for months.

I would drop the kids off, upbeat. You know, like we'd be singing songs, and they would get out of the car, and the door would close, and I would cry. It was like that mask that I was wearing, like being happy for the kids.

Boom, it just crumbled, completely crumbled, and I just cried. I cried every day for months after I dropped the kids off school. And it was like, I don't know what I'm going to do.

I don't know how to fix this. And I would pray and I would whatever I could. I don't know.

I was so lost and so confused. I didn't know how to fix what was unfixable. And so when I heard this teaching about sowing and tears and reaping and joy, I'm like, well, I've got lots of tears.

And if God counts them, so then the kids would leave. It didn't change the fact. I would cry every morning, every single morning without fail.

And I would say, okay, God, I'm giving you these tears. I don't even totally understand how to sow my tears. I don't know how to sow in tears, but I'm trusting you.

And I'm trusting that you will make my future more beautiful than today. Today, I'm in lack. Today, I don't have enough.

Today, my world feels broken, but I am trusting that if I sow my tears, if I trust you implicitly, that you will make my future better, that I will reap a harvest of joy.

So I believe, and I would quote Romans 828, that we know that all things work together for good, for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. I would quote that. And then I would quote the Lord's prayer.

And I would say, on earth as it is in heaven, God, God, whatever the blueprint for my life is in earth, I just pray that you would make that manifest.

Whatever the blueprint for my life is in heaven, I pray that you would make that manifest here on the earth. I don't know what it looks like in heaven. I don't know what the blueprint for my life is.

But I took my hands off everything. I didn't give God any qualifiers or any controls. I didn't say, you have to make my marriage work.

I didn't say, it was just like, whatever the blueprint for my life is, I'm praying that that will, your will, in heaven, here on earth, I believe that you will work things together for my good, because I love you, and I know I've been called

according to your purpose. So I just said, okay, God, I am trusting you, and this still hurts, and this is still painful, and I still don't understand, and I don't know what the future is going to look like.

I don't know what my harvest of joy will look like, but I'm going to trust you implicitly with everything. I'm going to put zero qualifiers on it. And I did that, and I did it over and over and over.

So every day, then the kids would get out of the car, and once again, that mask of joy and happiness I had on would crumble, I would cry. But I would say, I'm not going to waste my tears. God, you count my tears.

They are precious. They are seeds. I'm planting them in faith and belief that I will reap a harvest of joy.

I don't know what it's going to look like. I trust you implicitly. This whole concept of tears and in using them to plant, because not every season is a season of tears, but I lived in a season of tears.

In that moment, in those months, that was definitely a season of tears. And you may be in a season like that. You may be in a season where you don't understand, and it doesn't make sense, and it's so frustrating.

That is a unique season. And how we handle that, I believe, has a huge impact on our future. And if we just sit down and wallow and feel sorry for ourselves, which I understand is super easy to do, I fully understand that.

But if we take the time to say, no, I'm putting this back to God, I'm going to trust in God, I'm going to praise even in the pain.

And you know what, even when you're in a dark season and you're crying and you don't understand, when you praise God during that season, when you say, God, I know you were good. I don't feel good, but I know that you were good.

You are God above all things. You are God above all this. When you praise God even in that season, that is what we call a sacrifice of praise.

That is a sacrifice, because it's not the same as when everything is going right, and you just got a promotion at work, and you've just found the love of your life, and all these great things are clicking your way. No, that is easy to go.

God is good. Look at my blessings. I am blessed.

But when you have nothing, when everything feels like it's being stripped away, and you could still say, God, you are good, that is a sacrifice of praise. You are always in that position, right? So sometimes life is really good.

Sometimes life tracks well. But when you're in this season of rebuilding, when you're in the season where you've just been knocked down, that's a unique opportunity. And you're not always in a season to sow tears, right?

I mean, like sometimes you just have a bumper crop kind of harvest, and you don't, you can't sow in tears because they're not there.

But when you are in the season where everything has been stripped away, and it's painful, and it's hard, you have a unique opportunity to sow in tears. And trust God, and bring your sacrifice of praise.

And each tear that falls, God, I don't understand how sowing in tears work, but I have these tears, and I don't want to waste them. I want to trust you with my tears. You're recording them.

You care about me. I'm trusting you. And I trust you implicitly without qualifiers.

I'm not saying, God, you have to heal this. I'm not saying, God, you have to do this. I take my hands off.

I don't know what the blueprint of my life in heaven looks like, but you have a plan in heaven. It says so. You have a plan in heaven.

And I just pray, whatever that plan is that I don't even understand or know, I pray that the blueprint of heaven would be manifest in my life. Whatever that looks like, I don't understand. I trust you implicitly.

And I put no qualifiers on my trust. I'm not saying, I will trust you if you heal. I'm not saying, you have to heal.

I'm not saying anything. I'm saying, no matter what happens, I know you're going to work it together for my good. Like that whole deep, full, everything, nothing held back kind of trust.

That's what I'm talking about. And even if you don't understand it, you sow in tears. And I have to tell you that there are multiple things, I feel like, that had an impact on my life.

But I know without a doubt, without question, that this concept had a massive impact on my life.

If you could see the way my life is now versus the way it was five, six years ago, how drastically it's changed, and how much sadness and sorrow and just heartbreak I felt. To today, I walk in joy daily. I am so happy.

My life looks 100% different. I know love. I know joy.

I know peace. I believe a huge element of that came from sowing my tears. And in sowing into the same God, I trust you implicitly.

Do not waste my tears. I do not want to waste my tears. This is a unique opportunity.

And I don't get this just anytime in my life. This is a season I'm in, and I am not going to abandon this opportunity to self-pity. I'm going to sow these tears.

And I am now reaping a harvest of joy. I'm living this out, like, 100%. I could show you and tell you so many examples, but all I know is that 100% works.

Okay? And yes, I did. I focused on my mental health and my physical health and my financial health.

But this right here, this is the foundation of all of it. There's a reason why my spiritual health was the first one on the list of five. It's foundational.

It matters. Everything builds from that. And having your spiritual health line up first allows your mental health to come into line, and then physical and financial, and everything can come into line.

But this is so foundational. And just taking it back to God and saying, you have this thing with tears, God. I don't know what it is, but you count my tears.

You care that I cry. You write them in your scroll. It says so in Scripture.

You record my tears. So they matter. They're important.

And it says, those who sow in tears will reap a harvest of joy. So I'm not going to waste my tears. I'm not going to just swallow in self-pity and eat my seed.

I'm going to sow it. I'm going to sow the seed. I only have a little bit left.

And instead of eating it, instead of wallowing in self-pity, I'm going to sow it. And I'm going to tell God how good he is. And I'm going to trust him 110%.

My story did not turn out the way I thought it would. I really did not think that I would end up divorced. Like, I knew everything was broken, but I probably would have expected some miraculous way to be made for my marriage to be restored.

And it didn't happen. I trusted God implicitly. I trusted that he knew.

And there was no way for reconciliation to be made. It just, that wasn't a card that I could play. It wasn't on the table.

So, God made another way, and he brought somebody else into my life after a season of healing and all that. I was divorced. I was a single mom for a few years, and then God brought somebody into my life.

And the restoration is mind boggling. I sowed in tears, and I'm reaping a harvest of joy, 100%. I did not put qualifiers on it.

And even though it got itchier, I never thought that I would be divorced. Like, that seemed like I grew up in a home where that just wasn't something that you did. It felt shameful to me, I think.

And coming to terms with that was difficult. And I really wanted everything to turn around and work out and not be that way. But I trusted God even when it didn't go the way in my head, I thought it should.

And I am living proof today of just how amazing complete trust in God can be. Because if I would have insisted on my way, I would have still been miserable to this day. And God brought about such a beautiful thing.

And it took time. And it took a season of healing. And it took being alone.

And it took figuring things out by myself before I was ready to even have somebody else in my space, so to speak. But there was such restoration, complete 100% total trust in God. That is when you sow your tears.

You cannot sow in tears every season in your life. It just, that's just not the way it works. You have a unique opportunity.

You just can't always praise God. You can't always bring God a sacrifice of praise. I mean, I believe that.

I believe that you can bring a sacrifice when you're in the season, that it is a sacrifice. And when you're in a season of joy, please still praise God. When you're in a season of joy, still trust God.

Yes.

But when you're in this really dark season where it's so easy to just reject everything because you're so hurt and everything has been disappointing and everything is just wrong, when you can trust in that season, when you can praise in that season,

that's different. There's a different depth to that. And you can't give God that gift all the time. You just can't.

That's just not the way it works. You can only give God that beautiful, deep, fragrant gift in this season where it is unbelievably hard. And you are literally sowing in tears.

You have the opportunity. And I was always struck by the story of when Mary broke that alabaster box on Jesus' feet, and she anointed his feet, and they were like, oh, my gosh, that's like a year's worth of wages.

And I always think, I never have something like that to give to God. Like, I don't have this fragrant, beautiful, expensive, wealthy gift. How do I give God something that beautiful?

How do I give a sacrifice that is fragrant and deep? This is how you do it. You trust when you feel like you can't.

You sow in tears. You praise when it feels like you have nothing else. You bring your sacrifice of praise.

And that, like I said, you can't do that all the time.

You have a unique opportunity in this dark season to give God the best gift, the most beautiful gift, the most precious, fragrant gift, because you can't give it all the time, because it's not available all the time, because thankfully we're not

walking through a dark season all the time. And that's a beautiful thing about the seasons in our life.

Sometimes when we're in that really dark season, and everything hurts emotionally and physically, but we have this beautiful opportunity to give God a deep and fragrant gift, the gift of our trust, the sacrifice of our praise, because when everything

turns around and is beautiful, and right now, like I'm walking in a season that is so joyful, so joyful, and I'm so grateful, but I don't have the ability to give God what I gave Him when I was in that dark season. I still turn around and say, thank

you God every day. Thank you God. Thank you God. Thank you God.

But it's not the same sacrifice of praise when everything's going good. It's just different. So I encourage you right now in this season where things feel bad, if you are in that season, sow your tears.

Don't waste them. Don't follow in self-pity. Don't just stay there.

And as difficult as it is and counterintuitive as it seems, trust and sow your tears. They're precious. They are the seeds of your future.

Believe it or not, your tears hold the seeds of a beautiful and abundant future. And you know, you can sit there and you can eat some seeds, right? I mean, like I love nuts and seeds, corn, all kinds of things, right?

You can eat it and nothing else happens, but you do get fed for that moment. But if you turn and you put it in the ground, you reap a harvest. So, the idea of your tears being seeds and sowing them seems just so odd.

And I feel like I failed at explaining it well, but maybe pray on it. Maybe God and the Holy Spirit is a much better teacher than me, can help you understand it better than my feeble words can.

But the concept of just trusting God in the darkest season and trusting him implicitly, because God loves you and he wants you to succeed. And just that act of letting go of the details of how I wanted it to work out was a process. It was a journey.

It was healing. And I encourage you to think about it. And even if your prayer is as feeble as mine, God, I don't really know what it means to sow in tears, but I want you to sow my tears.

I love you. I trust you. I don't want to waste my tears.

I want to sow them. Be honest. God knows.

God knows what you don't know. God understands. Be honest and give this grief and this heartache and this brokenness to him.

And it's a daily walk. I'm not saying you just give it to God once, and then it's done. If that was, we would not be sowing in tears.

It's a process, and it's a journey. But I encourage you to not let your tears go to waste. They're precious, and scripture says so.

So I really, really appreciate you joining me today. I would love for you to reach out to me. You can find me online, www.workingonamazing.com.

You can drop me a line and tell me about your story, what tears you're sowing. And you can also find me on social media. I'm on most platforms, but I do hang out on Facebook the most.

You can drop me a line there, Working on Amazing. I would love to hear from you. Thank you for joining me today.

I look forward to talking to you next time. Bye.