People who believe that there is no cause and effect with God are simply fooling themselves. You cannot fool God. The way we think, the way we speak and the way we act – everything we do internally or externally, every choice we make, is a form of SOWING. Whatever seed we plant will certainly result in a harvest. We reap the same kind of thing that we sow, only in greater measure. As even the people of the world say, "What goes around, comes around". We may be able to harvest the results of our seed early or later. The earlier we wish to harvest, the less the result of the sowing will be. We would be better off to quickly harvest and root out all the evil seeds we have planted, while at the same time through faith and patience allowing all the good seeds we continue to sow to come to full maturity.
The way you think determines who you are, and will shape your destiny. Investing time in imagining and desiring the things the Word of God talks about is a very good way to sow to the Spirit. The results of this kind of sowing will be good, and they will be from the Spirit of God.
Thinking about how to lie, how to cheat, how to lust and so forth are all forms of sowing to the flesh. Sowing in this way will reap corruption. If it was not for the work of Jesus Christ on the cross they would certainly result in eternal destruction. Even WITH the cross of Christ at work in our life, there will still be consequences. We always end up losing when we sow to the flesh. We always end up winning (long term) when we sow to the Spirit.
The devil wants us to be deceived concerning this principle. He said to Eve concerning the forbidden fruit, "You will not surely die." In other words, you can sow sin and not reap death. The forces of darkness are always trying to deceive us that there will be no consequences to our sin, no consequences for our stinginess towards God's work, no consequences for our love of the things of the world. The devil is a liar. Every compromise causes us to be a bit less than we could have been otherwise.
Don't be discouraged, but resolve to sow to the Spirit. We don't know how much time we have left on this earth, but every day is an opportunity to sow good things for time and eternity. We can be truly blessed in the future if we sow the right things now – the right thoughts, the right words and the right actions. Let us do all things in faith and love, because this is what pleases the Lord.