“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”  Welcome to a new month, the month of September. I want to believe that we all did not ignore the word God gave to us last month i.e. to ‘arise and shine’. This month I want to encourage us to seek Him earnestly for this is the time to seek Him without failing, prepare our hearts as the soil whereby He can continue to sow His precious seed and therefore reap His mercy with a bountiful harvest of righteousness. The NIV says ‘Sow for yourself…’ In other words, no one can do it for you. Pastor can’t do it, spouse cannot do it, friends cannot do it, parents can train and instruct, but they cannot do it for their children. We must sow for ourselves righteousness. You have to sow righteousness for yourself; you have to determine for yourself that you will be right with God. Scripture tells us very plainly that our righteousness is as filthy rags in the sight of God. To sow to yourself in righteousness takes a desire to allow God’s word and Spirit to produce in us His righteousness. Men may be honorable and honest without God’s word and Spirit, but it is self-righteousness and it is not enough. True righteousness is not based on how we look at it; it is based on how God sees it. That is why we must look to the word of God and if we plant in our hearts and lives Gods word we will in time produce a life of godly righteousness. We do not live by the culture of this or any generation, but by the eternal word of God that changes not. We cannot allow things in our heart that we fail to deal with to be hindrance to God’s move in us. We must be prepared to break our hearts because the result is we will become hardened and the seed of righteousness will not be able to produce in us. Before heaven ever opens up for a person or church assembly the fountains of the deep (our heart) must first be opened up, too often we want revival to be poured out without opening our heart and soul before God.  Hosea said before the rains fall upon us that we must realize that it is TIME TO SEEK THE LORD. – Pastor Yemisi Onanuga