Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the LORD, because you know that your labor in the LORD is not in vain.
Well, it’s been since our ‘power couple’, Adam and Eve disobeyed that God told us;
“ Genesis 3:14-19 14So the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” 16To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 17To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
There is no other way to live our lives and be fed, clothed and sheltered-but to work!
You can see from the beginning, Adam had the responsibility to keep the weeds at bay so their would be vegetation to eat. He would have the responsibility of caring for the animals and making sure they were capable of offspring so that when the next came around, they would have food, and skins for clothes. I don’t know how all that happened before the fall but It did not seem to them as ‘work’. Maybe there were no weeds?
Eve had a different punishment. Pain in childbearing! Even with the pain women experience, even today, they still want children, and their husbands.
Now, that old serpent, he got the worst of it. I don’t know what he was like before the fall that Eve found him so attractive, and believable, but after the fall most people find snakes repugnant! Why? They aren’t dirty like pigs. They don’t show their teeth and growl like wolves, they don’t lunge at you because you look like a good lunch like lions. So, what is it we hate so much in a snake? God said it would be so! If God said it, that settled it!
Following on that path, God also said they would work for their living needs. This verse says they will work for the Lord as well. Thinking about these two verses, one Old Testament, one New Testament, we see an echo of the same theme…work! Even in our work there must be a balance between work to keep our homes clean and work to put food on the table.
And what about that ‘work for the Lord part?
I sometimes think about tithing our time in work for the Lord. If we took 10% of each day and did something specifically for the Lord, that would be about 2 hours and 40 minutes. Hmmmm what could you do for God for almost 3 hours daily?
Well, here are some suggestions for you of things you can do in Christ’s name to lighten the load of someone else. Especially in these days of social distancing you may find these helpful.
- Since people are isolated, call them or facetime to see that they are ok, they have what they need, and just visit them. Do this repeatedly! We are social people.
- Can you sew? Make face masks to donate to local social services or hospitals.
- Can you cook? Make a meal or two for an elderly person, or a busy family. Keeping children occupied since they are home from school can take away time for cooking.
- Can you walk? Stroll around your neighborhood praying and asking God to show you where your help in needed.
- Can you send a note or card to someone who may be isolated.
I have only skimmed the surface with things you can do to help in this critical time. Ask the Lord to show you what might be a way to reach out to those who need a hand.
And, ask yourself; ‘What would I want someone to do for me? Then do it for someone.
Tell me what you have done in my comment section! You might just inspire someone else!
Leave a Reply