Galatians 6:9

“Let's not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don't give up.”

Reflection

Paul assumes the weariness. He doesn't ask why you're tired or suggest that genuine faith wouldn't be. He takes for granted that doing good over time exhausts people, especially when the results are invisible. The instruction isn't to stop feeling tired; it's to not quit while tired. And the reason is agricultural: "in due season." Farmers understand something the rest of us resist — that the gap between sowing and harvest is long, unglamorous, and offers no feedback. Nothing appears above ground for weeks. If you judged the effort by what's visible, you'd stop. Most people who give up don't do so because the work failed but because the timeline outlasted their patience. The condition attached is small and enormous: "if we don't give up." Not if we succeed, not if we do it flawlessly. If we simply remain. That's a low bar in one sense and the hardest thing in the world in another.

Historical Context

Near the end of a letter defending grace against legalism, Paul turns practical, urging believers to keep doing good for one another. The agricultural metaphor of sowing and reaping runs through the surrounding verses.

Application for Today

Weariness is not evidence that you're doing the wrong thing. It's evidence you've been doing something for a while. The instruction is simply not to quit during the invisible stretch — harvest has a season, and it is not this one.

A Prayer

God, I'm tired and I can't see any results. Keep me from quitting in the stretch where nothing shows. I trust there's a due season, even if it isn't this one.

Related Verses

“rejoicing in hope; enduring in troubles; continuing steadfastly in prayer;”

Romans 12:12

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

James 1:2-4

“but those who wait for Yahweh will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:31