I just returned from spending a couple of weeks in Europe–my first vacation in seven years—and want to share something that God grabbed my attention with along the way. It’s a new way of looking at a verse I have read many hundreds of times:
“A sensible person gathers the crops when they are ready; it is a disgrace to sleep through the time of harvest.” Proverbs 10:5 (GNT)
This verse showed up while I was staring into the Aegean sea’s cobalt majesty and thinking about the spiritual imperative of fully releasing control of our life to God. Here’s why.
Christians committed to release control of their life to God will find it difficult to ignore the two words Solomon uses to deliver his powerful message–SENSIBLE and DISGRACE.
SENSIBLE: A positive, aspirational goal we seek to embody.
DISGRACE: The “out-of-bounds” zone we seek to avoid.
Those two words are, in a GENERAL sense, part of releasing control of our life to God. Both require our complete trust in God that comes when we surrender and obey.
God uses Proverbs 10:5 for a SPECIFIC purpose—to illuminate the glorious opportunity for every believer to harvest souls for God’s Kingdom. Releasing control of our life to God and activating our faith is far from automatic. It falls into the category of Use-It (while on earth) Or-Lose-It.
This recent trip of mine reinforced God’s gift that offers all believers the means to tell others about the Lord of Heaven and earth. But incredibly, it’s an offer that many Christians end up declining. And I do NOT want that to be me…or YOU.
It’s a shame because when God provides an opportunity to harvest, even the weakest child of God CAN rise to the occasion. Wise believers spot this opportunity and move on it for God’s glory. But foolish believers squander opportunities to harvest (Proverbs 17:24).
When a season of harvest appears by the grace of God, we need to rush through the open door, not past it. I ask God to remind me continually that I need to fully release control of my life to him so I can seize the opportunities he provides for me to bring lost souls to him.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Have you fully released control to God so you are willing and ready to harvest souls for the Kingdom? “He who gathers crops in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son.” Proverbs 10:5 (NIV)
