Quit Talking and Get to Work

All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Proverbs 14:23

Have you ever known someone who was "all talk"? I'm pretty sure I have. The guy I knew was an arrogant 19 year old who claimed to be a champion Mixed Martial Arts fighter in his home country. He used his intimidating demeanor and a stream of threats to compensate for his 5 foot 4 inch 130 pound frame. Being around a person like this can be quite unpleasant, but according to this proverb what's worse is being that person yourself. 

Whether it's a guy issuing empty threats and making false boasts or just someone who indulges their passion for gossip, all that talk gets in the way of actually accomplishing anything. We have all worked with people whose only fault was loving to socialize a little too much, but it still prevented them from being productive at work. Whatever the reason behind the talking, it eats into your productive time. That's why this proverb wisely points out that hard work leads to profit, whereas mere talk leads only to poverty.

Note too that all hard work leads to profit. Think about that! Even if I work hard on a project and fail, still God graces me with the profit of a lesson learned. Still others saw me work hard and my reputation was enhanced. Still I gained skill and discipline through the work. What is gained by mere talk? Nothing. It is prone only to increase our lack, our want, and our poverty. So whatever job you have to do today, set to it with eagerness. Work hard at it! Even if no one else sees you, and even if you get no credit. Rest easy. They can't take your profit away.

Can this be applied to our spiritual life as well? Yes! We must all be careful to guard ourselves against the trap of being "all talk" in regards to our relationship with God. This leads to an especially horrible kind of spiritual poverty called hypocrisy. Jesus pulled no punches when He dealt with religious hypocrites, so apply yourself to pursue your relationship with God not through mere words but through the hard work of seeking after Him. Attend church, teach a class, serve the less fortunate, carve out time to study the Bible, spend time earnestly praying over the needs of others. Trust me. If there is one part of your life that you don't want to be "all talk" in, this is it. Plus, you can be just as sure of the profit that comes from your spiritual work as you are of your physical labors. For the Word says, "Come near to God and he will come near to you" (James 4:8). So spend some time laboring for God today, not as a means to earn His love, but to see how you might be bettered by it.

Power in Weakness

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9

God's strength is made perfect- it finds its full end, it is completed, it is perfectly accomplished- in our weakness. This means that when you are at your weakest, God can use you most. When you can do nothing on your own, God can do everything through you. In fact, it is often when we can do nothing on our own that God sees fit to use us.

John Piper puts it this way. “We think that all we have is weak and small and God makes it big. Barren Sarah gives birth to the child of promise. Gideon’s 300 men defeat 100,000 Midianites. A slingshot in the hand of a shepherd boy brings the giant down. A virgin bears the Son of God. A boy’s five loaves feed thousands... This is God’s way- to take all boasting off of man and put it on God” (Piper, p19-20, Hidden Smile of God).

So don’t hide your weaknesses. Boast in them. Your weaknesses are just another way for God to work in you. In fact, they just may be the platform of your greatest ministry. So take your weaknesses to God. Take all the problems, the obstacles, all the things that you can’t do on your own and ask Him to use them to do something great!

Your Personal Path to Glory

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him... For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son...And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified... He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?... Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 

Romans 8:28-37 (selections)

Believer, God has a plan for your life! His plan was in place long before you were born. In fact, He made this plan before He even created the world, and God doesn't make shoddy plans! You can be sure He will accomplish what He sets out to do!

We each walk our own path in life, but don't you dare envy anyone else's because your path is tailor made to conform you into the image of Christ. The suffering you experience (and we all experience our own unique suffering) is akin to His suffering in this way: you both suffer for your sin. He suffered to pay the penalty for your sin. You suffer to overcome it and be set free from it. Your trials help prune the sin out of your life (John 15:2). They strip away all the unhelpful things and replace them with the things of Christ. 

God saw your suffering, your trials, your blessings, and your successes in eternity past and He is bringing you through all of this to glory. The path that you are on today is your personal path to glory. So, no matter how difficult it is, no matter how much you want things to change. Stay the course! Press on! Persevere! God has prepared this for you, and He will use it to make you into the man or woman of God that He wants you to be. So, trust Him! Follow in Christ's footsteps and be made perfect by obedience (Hebrews 2:10 & 5:8-10).

For further reading...

• Read all of Romans 8:28-37 to get the full picture.

Don't Worry About Tomorrow

My times are in your hands...

Psalm 31:15

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Isaiah 30:21

One week from today my daughter starts kindergarten. She is my oldest child, and I'm not ready for it. I knew it was coming, but now that it's upon me I don't like it one bit. 

Thinking about the future can bring up a lot of different feelings in our lives. Like me, you may be looking ahead at something difficult that you would just as soon avoid. Or maybe there's something just around the bend in your life for which you have been waiting a long time. Or, perhaps worst of all, your future may be a big question mark. You know you are approaching a fork in the road, but you have absolutely no idea which way to go. 

Thinking about the future can make you feel anxious, unsettled, excited, or even afraid. You may want to hold your future off a bit longer or you may feel like you can't wait another minute for it to get here. Either way, it doesn't matter; because the most difficult thing about the future is that it doesn't care about our feelings. No matter how you feel about it, your future marches to meet you at its own determined pace. You can't stop it. You can't slow it down. And you can't speed it up. So, what can we do? Take comfort in reminding yourself Who is in control. 

God holds your future. Whatever is going to happen will be worked out according to His plan for the good of His children (Romans 8:28). It will happen in His perfect time. And His Spirit inside you will be your guide so you know which way to go when you get to that fork in the road. So, trust God with your future! Walk according to His Word. Keep in step with His Spirit. And leave the rest in His hands. Matthew 6:34 says, "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself."

I still don't like having to send my little girl out into the big wide world, but it gives me comfort knowing that she has an infinitely good God to walk with her through her days. So even when her earthly daddy can't be with her, her Heavenly Father will be.