Tuesday the 10th

Psalm 104:  ¹⁴ He makes grass grow for the cattle, and plants for man to cultivate bringing forth food from the earth:  ¹⁵ wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil to make his face shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

 

If you want the cattle to be healthy, you have to work them, if you want to plants to grow, you have to use the seeds God has given, and you have to harvest, if you want a glass of wine, someone has to stomp the grapes, if you want the oil, the olives must be pressed, and if you want bread you will need to get your hands down in the middle of the dough, and knead it. When I read this I see all that God gives us, and it reminds me that if we are to take full advantage of His gifts, we must put the work in. Life is a work in progress, we decide how well we will do, largely by how much effort we are willing to put into the opportunities that God places in our path. If we stay with the same items as above it is easy to see what I am talking about. We all like beef, but few of us want to raise them, we all want vegetables, fruit, and grain, but we do not want to farm it, we enjoy the wine, but we do not want to wait for the harvest, the bottling, and the wine making process, we need the oil, but don’t run the press, and we love us some bread, but we do not want to wit for the dough to rise.  Of course with all of the modern advances we no longer have to work for the things I mentioned, but that concept applies across the board in our lives. We want the blessing, but we do not want to put the work in. Do not confuse what I am saying here, I am not talking about being saved through works, I am talking about reaching out full potential as followers of Christ, and children of God. This world today would have you believe that you deserve something just because you showed up. As a result we carry that into our spiritual life, and when we do that we have missed the boat. Christ did not say if you do little you will be trusted with more, He said that if you can be trusted with a little, then you will be trusted with more.  If you just sit there waiting for something to happen, do not be surprised when nothing does.  Love, compassion, blessing, forgiveness, ….these are verbs. They require action for them to be realized, we have to get involved if we want to receive more than we already have. God places opportunity after opportunity in front of us, He gave us the perfect guideline to follow, not an instruction manual, but an actual life to see how it was done. He gave us His Son. A man who worked every day for His Father. Christ showed up everyday, but more than that, He was present, He was active, He put in the work everyday, and that is our example.  We want the bread, we want the blessing, let us make sure that we are putting in the work, before we start wondering why we have not made a withdrawal!

 

God Bless,

Brian