by David Brenneman
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going." Ecclesiastes 9:10.
"But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more, and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, so that you will behave properly toward outsiders and not be in any need." 1 Thessalonians 4:10b-12.
"Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread. But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good." 2 Thessalonians 3:12-13.
"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. For he who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality." Colossians 3:23-25.
While we read in Ecclesiastes 9:10 about Sheol, that's not the destination for the saved in Christ Jesus.
Idleness is the opposite of all we read in the rest of the Scriptures here this morning. Idleness and pursuing things that do not make for the righteous life that God desires for us.
Do you pursue things that aren't glorifying God? Have you stopped to see if God is truly being lifted up or is it you?
The workmanship we are in Christ is not to make us a better person but rather to make us fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
It isn't for us to pursue this or that that strikes our fancy. Nor is it for us to justify our pursuits by way of slick reasoning. Either God gets the glory for great things He has done or He isn't.
Anything from daily life to jobs to hobbies can either be glorifying God or they won't be. These are the deeds done in the body that we will give an account of before Jesus. These deeds those thoughts and intentions and actions.
We are supposed to live lives that glorify God, to the best of our ability, because at any moment they may be our last upon this Earth.
Do you think about your day ahead in that light?
Do you or have you invested, time, energy, effort and perhaps money into things that are not worthy of the calling for which you've been called in Christ?
In more than one place in the Scriptures we're told to consider our ways. This is the message for today: consider your ways!
Consider your motivations.
Consider your reactions to situations and people.
Are you living a life that you would live if Jesus was physically there with you? Would you be how you are in front of Him?
Would you be as productive if He were physically with you?
Would you be as lazy if He stood there with you?
Would you change your hobbies, your this or that if He were physically there with you?
The truth, my Dear Reader, is He is right there with you.
He is.
Your part is to take up your own cross and follow Him. Are you?
Your part is to pursue that which you can and will do that glorifies your Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
Doesn't matter how big that is or how small. What's important is to do your best as unto the Lord because it's the Lord whom you serve.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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