Proverbs 21:5
The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to want.
There is no get-rich-quick. There is no magic pill. You don’t get in great shape without hard work, without diligence. This is a law of the universe as instituted by YHWH. Get on board with this, and you can start really moving your life.
Forget waiting for a break, for something wonderful to just effortlessly happen to you. Make it happen via the abilities God has granted you. “Nothing great comes without great effort,” they say. No one ever sat on the couch for a year and became a great violin player.
Forget looking for an easy, quick path to awesomeness. Walk the longer challenging-but-worth-it path and experience life as God intended for you. I talk to people almost everyday who want something for nothing. Who want peace in their life with no cost or effort. The quicker you accept the fact that this is not how life works in God’s world, the better off you are. At the very least, peace will come thru much ardent prayer. But even that is some effort.
But always remember, it is well worth the effort to be close to our Father. We do indeed reap what we sow. “Energy flows where direction goes.”
And yes, for the record, all is grace…yet, well, C.S. Lewis said it much better than I can:
If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very center of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God , how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?
Matthew 21:33-46
The parable of the evil tenants and the benevolent Landowner.
The tenants “forgot” they were simply stewards of the land and had no ownership of it. We too, are merely appointed custodians of God’s vineyard. Once we start thinking it is ours, we are done. This is pride, arrogance, ownership. And it leads to not finishing well.
May we always remember who the Landowner is. May we always remember our role, our privileged role. Israel became so blinded that they killed God’s prophets and even His own Son. Never think we are above this. We’ve all done this to some degree, protecting our own traditions or pet dogma at the expense of knowing God for who He truly is, or simply from-the-heart loving God, and deeply loving others.
The end of everything is love and service to YHWH.
Forever now is Lord LOGOS.
