A Harvest of Joy

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"The Harvest"

"Sowing Seeds in Your Child's Life"

"Friendship in Marriage"

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Dannah Gresh: Did you know that fall is harvest season? That’s right—apples, pumpkins, squash, carrots, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower—all these beautiful crops are ready to be harvested and prepared for your dining room table. Yum! It's wild to think about all this produce beginning as an itty bitty seed. It’s true! The farmer who sows his seeds will in time enjoy a bountiful feast. 

You know what else? This whole harvest concept is also a biblical metaphor. In Psalm 126, we read that those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. What does this mean? And how do we apply this truth to our everyday lives? Well, I’m glad you asked! Because that’s exactly what we’re exploring today. 

I'm Dannah Gresh, and welcome to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. First up, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth will give us the biblical scoop on sowing seeds that reap good fruit. Then we’ll hear from several guests who apply this harvest principle to parenting and marriage.

Here’s Nancy to kick us off with some teaching from Psalm 126:5. She gave this message in her series on revival called "The Cry of the Captives."

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: There’s a harvest coming. We’ve talked about the cost of sowing, but now we see the certainty of reaping: they will reap in joy.

Then, as if we weren’t clear as to what He had said, He repeats it in verse 6 with just a few more words:

He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

The certainty of reaping: they shall reap—those who sow in tears.

By the way, it doesn’t just say those who have tears shall reap in joy. That occurred to me as I was meditating on this passage earlier. It says, “Those who sow in tears.” He who continually goes forth weeping—it doesn’t say that he’ll come again with rejoicing. It says, “He who continually goes forth weeping bearing seed for sowing.”

Those who are going out, sowing the Word of God in people’s hearts and lives and doing it with tears—tears of compassion, tears of concern, tears of contrition, tears of labor and travail—those who sow in tears, they are the ones who will reap in joy.

It’s not our tears that bring back the harvest. It’s the Word of God. It’s the truth of God’s Word. It’s Christ, the living Word. He’s the one who brings revival, so we can’t ever say, “Oh, I was the intercessor. I was the one who cried, and God . . .” It’s not our tears. It’s the Word of God. It’s our tears that just water that seed that has been sown, and then it takes root and produces fruit.

Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. They will come again with rejoicing—there’s that word again. It means to shout songs of joy. So we see in this passage that our sorrow, our tears, will give way to joy.

Psalm 30:5: “Weeping may endure for a night.” It may be a long night—weeks or years of a night, decades . . . Weeping may endure for a night, but morning comes, and with morning comes what? Joy. “Joy comes in the morning.” 

That great joy—you read about it in the history books of revival and the Second Great Awakening. It was said about one particular area that there was great joy in that city and the region beyond. Parents were often seen rejoicing over a son or a daughter who had been made a subject of grace.

That reminds me, by the way . . . Parents, some of you are so burdened for your children. Some of you have little ones; you’re homeschooling them; you’re trying to teach them in the ways of God. You send them off to school each day, and you’re so burdened about what happens in their hearts, about God’s seed of God’s Word taking root in their lives. Don’t give up!

Some of you have teenagers; some of you have children grown and out of the home, and they’re not walking with the Lord, and you’re still burdened. Don’t give up! Keep sowing the Word in tears. God will show you when to speak. God will also show you when to be quiet, but keep sowing the seed of the Word.

Keep sowing those prayers; keep sowing those tears. Don’t give up! Be faithful moms with little ones in sowing the Word of God into the hearts of your little children. Don’t let those kids grow up and have missed the most important thing.

Listen, you can keep them clothed and fed and to school on time and to sports events and piano lessons, but if you haven’t been planting the Word of God into their lives, what are you going to have to show for all your investment? Be faithful; don’t give up! Here’s a promise for your future: “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy” (Psalm 126:5). It doesn’t say when; it doesn’t say how long; it doesn’t say exactly what the harvest will look like. But you will reap. You will reap with joy.

And that’s the certainty of reaping: the harvest . . . “bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:6). I just wonder, If we had more sowing, weeping, praying, earnest-hearted parents—more sowing, weeping, praying, earnest-hearted wives—if there might not be more children and more husbands getting right with God.

It’s a lot harder to do it this way, isn’t it? We’d rather send them a book, send them to a counselor. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with books and biblical counselors, but I want to tell you, there’s a price to be paid. There’s a cost if you want to reap, and there are no shortcuts to it. It’s the cost of sowing in tears.

I hear women so burdened . . . They write us at Revive Our Hearts all the time—and I’m so thankful they write us—but my heart goes out to them as they share their burden for their husband who is not walking with God, their burden for their church that is so dry and barren, or their burden for their workplace.

What this passage says is, “What can we do about it?” Sow in tears. Sow the seeds of God’s Word into that situation as you have opportunity. Sow the seeds of prayer into that situation—with tears, with brokenheartedness—and you will reap.

Where is God asking you to sow in tears? For your marriage? You say, “I’ve been doing it for years.” Don’t stop. "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy."

Is God asking you to sow in tears on behalf of a son or daughter or grandchild who’s not walking with God? You say, “I’ve been doing it for years! Nothing’s happening.” Don’t quit. "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy."

Maybe it’s your workplace. You say, “It’s such a pagan environment. They have no fear of the Lord in that place.” It concerns you. You pray, but nothing’s happened. Don’t give up. "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy."

Maybe you’re burdened for your church. We hear this all the time—and it’s true, as Isaiah prayed in Isaiah 64, that Jerusalem is a wilderness; it’s a desolation (v. 10). Our churches are a wilderness today, and I don’t say that critically. I say that with a broken heart. You say, “I’ve prayed, and nothing’s happening.” That’s what you think. That’s all you can see. But don’t give up. "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy."

Be faithful. Don’t get weary in well-doing. You will reap if you don’t give up. Joy will come; the harvest will come. And so we pray with the psalmist in Psalm 67, “God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us” (v. 1). Why? “That your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations” (v. 2).

That’s the harvest: the glory of God; the fame of the name of Christ spread through the nations; the day when every knee will bow, and kings and rulers and nations will turn and confess Jesus as Lord. Ladies, when you pray—when you sow in tears—it’s not just for you, it’s not just for your marriage, and it’s not just for your family or your church. You can become a part of God’s great redemptive plan in this whole wide world.

There are parts of this world where God wants to display His glory where you will never be able to set foot, but you can pray. You can pray for the church in those countries. You can sow in tears. There, just you alone, in your home . . . you may not know anybody else who’s praying this way, but you can pray. You can get a hold of God. You can go before His throne and say, “O Lord, I won’t leave. I won’t stop sowing in tears until we’ve been blessed to see You give a harvest. We want to reap in joy.”

Dannah: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth on Psalm 126:5. This whole concept of sowing in tears and reaping in joy—it reminds us that seeking the Lord’s transforming power through His Word and through prayer is worth it. It’s worth it in our churches, our communities, our marriages. And next up we’re going to see that it’s worth it in our parenting, too. 

Betsy Corning is a mom who has been faithfully sowing truth into her children and grandchildren for decades. She’s devoted her life to the dual cause of discipleship and family life as the founder of Entrusted Ministries. Betsy and her husband share a passion for building the body of Christ, family by family. That passion began when their own children were young. Together, they developed some practical strategies that I hope will inspire you to get creative as you tend to the little hearts in your home—and maybe even use your garage as a canvas for truth.

Nancy: So what’s on your garage wall? Tell us.

Betsy Corning: They are five biblical convictions:

1) Love and obey Jesus—and he puts a reference with every one of these.

2) Be loyal to your family. Family is so important, and so how do we honor our families, multigenerationally?

3) Work hard and finish strong, be a hard worker for the Lord.

4) Be honest, be a person of integrity.

5) Be kind, be a kind loving servant of the Lord.

And that’s just a simple little thing, and it’s so funny, because in the class I show that these are in my garage, inside on the wall. And people say, “Excuse me, why are they on are your garage?” And I say, “Well, I guess that’s the only place I would let my husband write with a magic marker.”

But as it turned out he just did that, and so it’s sort of become a tradition, because we’ve moved, and they still go up on the new house. But I love the fact that every time we drive in, our lights are flashing on that; every time we back out, we see that. Every time we opened the door, every time our kids took out the garbage, what we saw is that.

And honestly, even when we thought, “You’re in violation of one of our family values,” which are really God’s family values, we might send them out to the garage and say, “Go out there and look, then come in and tell us which one you violated.”

I think that’s just a good lesson. Kids can succinctly say, “These are the five things our family is about.”

Nancy: And that would be a great question for every family to answer, “What are our family values? If we had to reduce it to five things . . ." What do you want for your children?

Betsy: It is an assignment.

Nancy: And here’s the other question: Do your children know what those values are? And, as I’m listening to you talk about writing those on the garage wall, of course my mind goes to Deuteronomy chapter 6 where the Scripture says,

The Lord our God. the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and you shall talk of them when sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand . . . you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (vv. 4–9)

Now, it doesn’t say, “on your garage,” but maybe they didn’t have garages back then. But that’s an Old Testament statement of what you just really illustrated Betsy, and that is you want to, as a family, you determine what it is that God wants you involved in, to do, and how can we pass these on to our children so that they are reminded of them constantly? In a way that you’re reminded of them constantly.

Your children are growing up in an environment where they know this is what matters to their family, and this is what matters to the Lord. One of the values in our family—we didn’t have anything written on the garage wall—but as I’m thinking back about it, one of our family’s values was a heart for the world, a heart to see the gospel go out across the world.

How do I remember that? I’ve been gone from home since, actually, I went to college at fifteen, so I wasn’t at home that many years. But we had on our breakfast room wall a large map of the world. My parents and our family supported a lot of different missionaries in different ways, and so we had little tacks on different places on the map where these different missionaries were serving, with pieces of yarn out to their picture around the map.

We would pray for these families, we would read the newsletters of these families who were serving the Lord around the world, and from the time we were really little, every time we would have meals in that room, which was breakfast and dinner every day virtually, we did family meals, we had that visual reminder.

By what was on the walls, from the earliest times of my memory, we were being challenged to that family value, which is God’s value.

Betsy: And it sticks with you forever, your whole life. That’s just something that’s ingrained in you. You love to look for the needs of people, here and abroad, it’s just intrinsic in you because it’s really God’s work in you through your parents instilling that in you, from “little” on.

That’s a big thing that we say, “These things start little.” So be really intentional by thinking about what it is. We said in the last program that you reap what you sow. If you want to reap something great in your children’s lives, you’d better be sowing right now. Or, what are you sowing right now that really isn’t going to reap something you want in your children?

So we go through some really serious exercises to investigate those, and to really make some practical ways to make that so that we’re doing what we really want to be reaping.

Dannah: I love it! That was Betsy Corning on sowing intentional seeds in the lives of her children. She reminds you—you reap what you sow! If you’re sinking seeds of biblical truth into the hearts of your kids, your grandkids, or your spiritual children, the Lord says to expect a harvest of joy. 

This principle isn’t just for parenting; it’s for marriage, too. Nancy Anderson learned this the hard way after having an affair. By His grace, God pulled her out of this sinful relationship and she committed to rebuilding her marriage with her husband, Ron. Together they’ve learned that a healthy marriage requires a lifetime of intentionality—of sowing in love to reap joy in one another. They sat down with Nancy to talk about their story, and it is so encouraging to hear about the growth God has given in their marriage. Let’s listen.

Ron Anderson: We decided after learning this through one of the resources that we were going to make a list of five specific, very specific things that she could do to make me feel loved. And she was going to make a list of very specific things that made her feel loved. We switched lists, and I would carry that in my wallet.

The number one thing on my wife’s list that made her feel loved as a wife and a woman, was before we go to bed at night, to pray for her. I can do that now that I know that. I mean it, it took me a while to get into the pattern, but it’s something I can do.

Number two on her list was typically when we went to an event, I was in the party or the event telling my first joke while she was still in the car unbuckling her seatbelt. So she said, “What makes me feel loved is if you wait for me to get my makeup squared away, get my purse squared away, unbuckle my seatbelt, and we walk into the event together.”

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: It seems like a little thing.

Ron Anderson: A little thing, but it spoke volumes of love to her. I can do that.

Nancy Anderson: Well, his list, as many of you can probably guess, the number one thing on the list that made Ron feel loved was physical intimacy. And I did not understand that. I still don’t fully understand it. I do believe that it’s important to him. One of the things we’ve learned is if it’s important to your mate, then it must be important to you, and you must give it priority.

Even though, like I said, I don’t understand it, I do make every effort to meet his need. And because I am willing to do that, and because I’m not only willing but look forward to meeting that need of his, the transformation has been amazing because I end up getting ultimately what I want, which is the needs on my list met.

Ron: And we would hold each other accountable. There might be a time where I’m kind of slacking off on her list, but yet I want my list met. She would gently remind me, “Well, it’s been about four days since you prayed for me.” And I would have to say, “Okay, let me regroup,” because there is a pattern that we take when we’re trying to change our behavior. It does not happen overnight.

It takes you a long time to develop bad patterns, and it takes a long time to develop good patterns. You have to give each other mercy during this period where you’re trying to change your behavior. Wouldn’t you agree, Nancy?

Nancy Anderson: Yes, and a really important point is that the Bible gives us a roadmap of how a wife is to behave. It isn’t predicated upon the husband’s behavior. We are called to do certain things as godly women. His response does not determine what our behavior should be. So I would just encourage anyone who’s in that situation to continue doing what the Lord has called you to do, regardless of the response or non-response from your husband.

As he sees you change, as he sees you giving, maybe he won’t believe it at first, but if you’re consistent and if you’re praying for him and if your heart is tender toward him and if you know his needs—ask him what his needs are and meet those needs for him—then he will begin even slowly to meet your needs.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: You know it takes faith. Nancy, as I think about your story when you first came back home, you broke off your affair; you quit your job; you repented; you confessed your sin; you came back to Ron. He wasn’t a loving, gracious, godly husband at that point, and you didn’t know if he would ever change.

But you said, “I’m willing to obey God and do the right thing.” Then both of you said, “We’re willing to start following God’s roadmap regardless of (as you say, Nancy) the response or non-response of my mate. I’m going to do what God wants me to do.”

Nancy Anderson: I knew what I was told to do, and I knew what I had to do to have a clear conscience before God, and I knew that if I was continuing in sin on purpose by disrespecting my husband, that it would stand in the way of my relationship with the Lord.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: And certainly kill whatever chances you might have of that marriage being restored.

Nancy Anderson: Yes. The only hope we had was to behave in a way that pleased God.

Ron: And we had to really come to learn and believe in our hearts that we had to make the Lord the center of the relationship. That was hard in the beginning, but the more that we studied the Word, the more we realized that that really was the foundation we had to build from.

Nancy Anderson: One of the verses that was really important to me was Proverbs 4:23: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it affects everything you do.”

And that’s where I got in the most trouble was by not guarding my heart. The world tells us, “Oh, follow your heart, it will lead you to wonderful places.” Well, it’s not true. Because the Bible tells us that our hearts are exceedingly wicked, who can know them? (See Jeremiah 17:9.)

So if we follow our emotions, if we follow our flesh, our flesh will lead us down a path of destruction.

So once I began to guard my heart from outside invaders and from internal discontent, the little rumblings that I had, the complaining spirit, the critical spirit. I asked the Lord to literally install a filter between my mouth and my brain because my first instinct was to correct my husband, especially about insignificant things.

I wanted to be his mother. I wanted to make him wrong and me right. I wanted to correct him and make him wrong, and that was what got me in trouble in the first place.

So I had to stop myself, and it is an act of will to just not say it. I found that the more I stopped myself, the more he began to open up to me, and then our lines of communication were true and real.

Ron: Well, the days of her giving me a 10,000 word essay on the fact that I forgot to fill up the gas tank were over. That was an obvious change.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: That was a filter on the lips.

Ron: That was the filter.

Nancy Anderson: Because the more I criticized and complained, he would want me to stop, and he would say, “Okay, okay, I got it.” But I wouldn’t stop, so then I would keep, keep, keep pushing him, and then that’s when he got really angry. That’s when he would use profanity because he wanted me to just stop. So once I stopped myself, then it didn’t escalate and then we learned that, yes, we can communicate our disappointments but it doesn’t have to be a war.

Ron: Right, and we eliminated those wars. We still have days where we might get on each other’s nerves, but we learned how to resolve it in a positive way.

Nancy Anderson: We have bad hours now; whereas, we used to have bad weeks.

NancyDeMoss Wolgemuth: And that is the grace of God, and I see so much evidence of His grace, His restoring, redeeming power in your lives and your marriage. Thank you so much for being open and honest about your story. I praise the Lord for what He has done in your lives, and I’ve now had the chance to get to know you, and this is the real thing. This is the power of God. This is something only God could do.

Dannah: Amen. That was Nancy Anderson with her husband Ron. Praise God for the redeeming work He’s done in their marriage! As they really began to invest, to sow into their relationship—they reaped a harvest of joy. And you can too! What area in your life do you need to continually bring before the Lord, maybe even through tears, so you can reap with shouts of joy? Parenting, marriage, church, work—let me tell you, the Lord cares about all of it. 

If Revive Our Hearts has been an encouragement to you. If the seeds this ministry is sowing have been a source of joy to you, would you consider giving to support Revive Our Hearts this month? Listeners like you are the reason we’re able to reach women around the world with Christ-centered content day after day, and we’re so grateful for those of you who choose to join our mission through your support!

Right now when you give, be sure to request the beautiful new Revive Our Hearts calendar for 2026. It features quotes from Nancy’s A Place of Quiet Rest and stunning artwork to bring color and calm to your space. You can give and request your calendar by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com/donate. 

Well, next weekend we’re welcoming fall with a conversation about cultivating hospitable character. That’s right—we’re seeking to be warm and welcoming women together, just in time for cozy season ahead. I hope you’ll come back for that!

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time, for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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