Body and soul

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

BODY AD SOUL

Prov 24:30-34

30 I went past the field of the sluggard, past the vineyard of the man who lacks judgment; 31 thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. 32 I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: 33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest — 34 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.  

NIV

God has always intended for us to work, to labor at something. When he put the first man in the garden, he did not tell him to just enjoy, to sit in a hammock, drink the juice of the grape, feast on the fruit from the trees and act lazy all day long. No, he told Adam to tend the garden.

Gen 2:15-16

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

NIV

He also told Adam that he was to rule over all the other living things he had created. Adam had a big job on his hands, to work the garden, pruning the bushes, and trees so they would continue to grow properly and produce the desired fruit for his sustenance. God had provided all the fruit bearing plants and trees, but he required Adam to take care of them, to work them. Even after Adam and Eve had disobeyed God and were cast out of this paradise, God told Adam he would now have to work the ground all the days of his life and by the sweat of his brow he would have his food. There is no excuse to sit down and do nothing. God made us to work. We either work or we don’t eat. That is the principle established by God. Jesus worked, first as a youth in the carpenter shop with Joseph, than he did the work of his Father during the three plus years of his public ministry. Our modern concept of working for just so many years, storing up enough money so we can retire and sit back doing whatever just does not match the plan God had in creating mankind. We are designed to work, at least us men. What we know about the women is God designed them to be a helpmate. Whatever that looks like is not up to us to determine. Women need to explore that idea for themselves. What we can be sure is we are not to become a sluggard or lack judgement. This can also apply in a spiritual sense. We are to continually work the field and the vineyard of our heart and mind. We cannot get lazy in our working the truth of God into the soil of our spirit. We cannot be like that person who hears the word, accepts it, but the weeds grow up and choke it out. We cannot allow wall of defense to turn to ruin. That is the lack of putting on the Armor of God, the lack of staying in the word of God, the lack of retaining good judgment regarding the truth. If we become lazy in our relationship with God, we start to deteriorate. We can never stop working the vineyard. If we sleep a little, a little slumber, if we fold our hands to rest, poverty, spiritual poverty will come upon us like a bandit. We are susceptible to the armed man. That is the man of false lips, the one who misuses scripture to fleece the flock, the man who teaches incorrect theology, if he teaches it at all. If we become lazy, lacking right judgement we might well be deceived by these bandits. Let us always be about the work God has established for us, working for our sustenance, and working for the truth. Tending and caring for the garden, both our body and our soul.