Go to the ant, o sluggard; consider her ways and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long would you lie there, oh sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.
Proverbs 6:6
I’ve been considering the past year plus of covid restrictions and considering the fruit my life has produced in this season. Growth is something we never stop doing. It’s engagement in life. We begin to die when we cease to engage. So even with man’s restrictions, God is still at work, both to will and do of His good pleasure.
Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes ‘a dream comes by much activity’ and again in Proverbs, a man dies for a lack of discipline’. Covid forced, on the majority of us, a large measure of restricted activity. As we reflect ofn this past timeframe, can we stop and examine the fruit it has produced in our lives?
What did we put our hands to and increase? We must be mindful that seasons of rest are designed to still be fruitful. Nature uses the winter season to recoup. Night prepares for day. Jesus encouraged his disciples, after a season of much activity, to come aside and rest. He calls the weary and heavy laden to himself for restoration of soul. Rest prepares you for the next thing.
We are all looking forward to the days ahead, stepping back into ‘busy about the masters work’ and extending the kingdom and reaping the harvest. I’m trusting that we have all taken the time to examining our foundations, allowing realignment and refitting to occur. It’s time to come forth as Jesus did when he began his work “in the power of the Holy Spirit”.
None of us hold a full picture of our tomorrow but “If we faint in the day of adversity our strength is small”. If we weren’t able to walk with the footmen how can we run with the horses?
If we have not responded to the invitation to come aside and rest in a season where many have not had chief,ruler, overseer, to direct them then we may find ourselves unprepared to reap a harvest.
I suppose the question I’m putting forth today is - have we increased our lives spiritually?
Have we used the time to build ourselves up in our inner man?
Have we attended to the word - learning, hearing and seeing, receiving revelation?
Have we taken the days, weeks, month, to sit at his feet and behold Him?
Have we grown in the knowledge of our Father and His son?
Do we see a greater grace and peace resting in our lives?
It’s not that any of us have arrived or that we are perfect. These, of course, are just questions for examination. What have we put our hands to? Where is the increase revealing itself?
Hopefully we have all learned to exercise spiritual disciplines that will keep us in the ‘new’ that God is leading us into.
For us all, being faithful with what we have been given and remaining stedfast in our faith, is huge in the heart and mind of God.