Sideline for Substance
Week 25, Weekend
Elizabeth Luter
In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand.
Ecclesiastes 11:6 (kjv)
I’ve spent the last five years spinning my wheels. I’ve worked from sunup to sundown to strengthen the ministry assigned to my hands. Due to disaster, the ministry in which I serve was scattered throughout the nation. At the culmination of my duties, my life went into a physical tailspin. At the base of my diagnosis is fatigue. I have been forced to watch the ministry from the sidelines. The Lord has allowed greater maturity in my absence. Therefore, my physical limitations have provided me time to reflect and watch God’s master plan.
I’m fascinated by the spiritual growth of many whom the Lord has allowed me to encourage. There is a time to reap what has been sown. When the farmer plants, he must wait the allotted time to see what has been produced. If he visits the crop too frequently, he is apt to be discouraged.
In the ideal world, one would prefer to have one major assignment at a time. Unfortunately, we are given God-sized tasks in duplicates. We try to decide which assignment is more worthy of our energy. When I persevere to give equal time and effort, the results are amazing. Outcomes in life are so unpredictable. It was never God’s will that we figure it out, only that we be obedient.
If we were not physically limited, we would continue until our batteries completely burn out. God is so merciful and all knowing. When He sees us at our wit’s end, He puts a halt to the process. He will pull us aside, restore our physical strength, and position us for our next assignment.
It is important as Christians that we remove ourselves from the activities of this world and give God our undivided attention. Only then will we be the cultivators we were called to be. Ecclesiastes 11:6 says, “For thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good” (kjv). It is not ours to determine when we will sow or what crop will be produced. We can only be grateful for having been obedient to the call.
Father, I thank You for holding the reins to my life. You control when I go out and when I come in. You give me strength for the journey and rest when I’m weary. You are so awesome! Amen.
Between family, school and children activities, church activities, Bible studies, and whatever else would come up, I began to feel the same stress and fatigue. I thought I was doing good, because the activities weren’t bad in nature, but they were sucking the life out of me. I realized that the most important thing of strengthening my relationship with God, was not even on my “to do” list for the day. I have tried really hard to make that my priority and so far all the other stuff has naturally been filtered away!