Proverbs
14:23 NIV
All hard
work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty
The book
of Proverbs is full of wisdom, and one subject it goes back to over and over
again is work. In fact the Bible
constantly returns to the theme that work is good & laziness is bad. We know practically that people who work hard
are rewarded while lazy people miss opportunities. But how does this relate to finding our
calling?
You may
have thought about work & laziness in terms of a profession. I know that’s where my head goes first. Usually the people who work hard & hustle
are the ones rewarded by more work, responsibility, & money. This concept is described in the Parable of
the Talents in Matthew 25, where the good stewards are rewarded. But what about the stewardship in your spiritual
life? Do you invest your time in order
to grow in spiritual maturity?
1
Corinthians 3:2-3
I fed you
with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are
not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh
Maybe
you’ve never thought about investing in your own spiritual maturity. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul talks about addressing
them as infants in Christ, giving them milk because they weren’t ready for
solid food. I think many Christians
aren’t equipped for a bigger calling because they are still ‘drinking milk’
spiritually. God calls His people to a deeper
relationship with Him, & that time spent in prayer, fellowship, & the
Word is really an investment. One way we
see a return on this investment is by God calling us to much more.
Let me be
clear that I am not talking about skills & abilities here. Hebrews 13:21
assures us that God will equip us for whatever he calls us to. The mechanisms God uses for equipping are the
Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17) & teaching (Ephesians 4:11-12). Nearly every person in the Bible who pursued
their calling lacked outward qualifications. But what is true is that the most
successful people in the Bible in relation to their calling were the people who
had invested most in their relationship with God.
Isaiah 64:8 says we are the clay and God is the potter. Each week
we have 168 hours. A mere 30 minutes of preaching on Sunday is actually only
0.3% of a week. That leaves 99.7% of the week for something else to mold &
shape you. As the
potter, God was able to mold His vessels, but how can He mold clay that continues
to stay on the shelf?
So what is
the alternative to investing in your relationship with the Lord and on
spiritual things? Is there anything that
could provide the return that the Bible promises now and into the future? So as Proverbs 6:6 says, consider the ant
& its work ethic…don’t be lazy.
There is so much more waiting for you.
