http://bible.com/116/ecc.11.6.nlt Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.
This wise advice is helpful for both spiritual and physical considerations.
When we are talking about things of this world, it is wise to both begin investing our seed as early as possible, and to continue working as long as we can. If we rely on the profit from just one or the other, we can find ourselves in trouble.
If we’ve invested and built up great wealth so that we become comfortable with our financial security, and we stop working, and we stop producing – what happens when investments go wrong, c when financial institutions leave us penniless? We will be so accustomed to our life of luxury and have no skills or abilities to maintain our families if we do not have a worthwhile trade, skillset, and ability to contribute and support our families.
If we think that we have no need to save, but expect that we will always be able to work and provide income for ourselves and our families. If we do not protect ourselves with savings and investments and insurance, but we spend it as it comes in, expecting the well to never go dry – what happens when we lose a job, or become injured, or face sickness in our lives. We will have nothing to fall back on.
So you see, we need both of we hop to be wise and prepared.
And more importantly than things of this world – for they are just a shadow of the more important truths about God and about things spiritual and eternal – let’s look at how this works with spiritual things.
Isn’t there great value in investing the first part of our day, setting our minds on the things of God, surrendering our lives daily to die in Christ, so that He might be present in our praise, our study, and in our prayer? But if we don’t put it into application in our daily lives – if it becomes intellectual stimulation but never materializes into any real change where Christ’s love is manifest in our lives, what good does that serve? Or if we work very hard at doing good things, but our life is empty of surrender and worship and bringing God glory and honor, isn’t it all about ourselves and not God? You see, we must have both.
If we claim to accept Christ as our Savior and plunge ourselves under the physical waters of baptism, but we don’t repent and surrender our lives and seek first and foremost the Kingdom of God, can we say that we have drank of the living waters at all? Can we say that we are Children of God if Christ is not alive in us?
So let us not claim Faith and not have works and repentance and love to show for it, or our faith is dead and worthless and we are only fooling ourselves.
And let’s not claim works as our own, seeking to find glory and honor in the eyes of men, for without Faith, works are filthy rags that will always fall short of the glory of God, because they are our own works – not the work of God working through us.
So let us not only claim salvation, keep us proving ourselves both washed by the blood and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Both purchased and active.
Both invested in a Holy inheritance as a Child of God, and working constantly as a servant seeking His will be done and His Kingdom come on earth in our daily lives.
Yes, both.
How can I better sow my seed today both spiritually and physically?
Do I need to be more self disciplined about starting each day off seeking your will for my life?
Do I need to become more self disciplined with my finances and budget wisely and invest and save so that I can be better prepared?
How can I work harder both spiritually and physically?
Are there areas of my life that I haven’t yet surrendered? Is there unforgiveness or bitterness that I need to lay down? Is there faithfulness in an area such as tithing, guarding my thoughts, controlling my emotions, controlling my tongue, or avoiding temptation that I need to resolve?
Am I finding myself resting in idleness or seeking mindless entertainment instead of pushing myself to produce positive change and opportunities for service in the lives around me? Am I resting confident or complacent in my situation and not pushing to excel and be a shining example of hard work to others around me?
Don’t think that I write this message because I think that I’ve got this nailed, folks. This is a very hard and convicting message for me. I share what I am being taught, not what I’ve mastered. Please, pray for me. I also pay that the Lord will bless you and guide you – that somehow, even through me, that His message will get through and that there might be some light in this message that will encourage you to press on, to draw near to Him, and to see Him living and moving in your life each day. I love you, friends. God bless.
Harold J. Ballinger 