Gotta Get Moving!

I know that it was only an hour, and that I’m supposed to break the months’ long habit of getting up at a specific time by getting up at least an hour early, but I also know that I’m not alone in this adjustment!

It’s not just in responding to the government edict, it’s also responding to God’s examples.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: [Proverbs 6:6 KJV]

Solomon goes on the explain why the ant is such a good example for us:

Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. [Proverbs 6:7-8 KJV]

No one has to give the ant a plan for what to do in the summer in order for her to work in the winter.  They know if they do not store food, there will be none.  Often mankind doesn’t seem to notice this, yet it applies to all living creatures.

How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. [Proverbs 6:9-11 KJV]

Yep.  Poverty.  We should be wiser than that after all of these years.  A few centuries later Paul got very specific about working and eating:

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. [2 Thessalonians 3:10 KJV]

Why would we expect it to be any different at the Lord’s table?  If we are not willing to work for Him here, how can we expect to collect the fruits of the harvest in heaven?  You see, it’s not just bodily nourishment Paul is talking about here.  He takes it a step further in the spiritual nourishment as he explains:

For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread. But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing. [2 Thessalonians 3:11-13 KJV]

Have we grown weary in doing well and think this one, just in this one little thing, just in this one instance, we don’t have to do well?  It’s our choice.  Like the ant, we don’t have an overseer except our own willingness to follow the Lord. 

Oh, we shall always have those who judge our words, our deeds, but the only person we have to answer to is our Lord, our God.  Too often we are more concerned about the earthly judges and neglect the one for whom we truly labor.  God is the only true – and the only fair – judge in our entire existence.  How do our labors – or our slumbers – compare to His plan?  How do we want them to compare?