Working hard for your money? Good!
When my middle son was in high school, he made a birdhouse in woodworking class. It is a cube painted white and black to look like a die, with the single pip being the entrance.
Last year we hung the birdhouse on our front porch, and a pair of chickadees moved in and had babies. After they left I cleaned the birdhouse and hung it up again this year. Again, a pair of chickadees moved in and recently their babies hatched.
This morning I sat in my chair and observed the action through the window. The baby chickadees are loud, and the "Feed me" chirping is incessant. For the entire time I watched, both parents flew in and out of the nest. They would arrive, go inside for a few seconds, and fly away. A minute or two later, the same thing would happen again.
When I shifted my attention from the chickadees to Scripture, I came across the words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount:
"Look at the birds in the sky. They do not store food for winter. They don’t plant gardens. They do not sow or reap—and yet, they are always fed because your heavenly Father feeds them. And you are even more precious to Him than a beautiful bird. If He looks after them, of course He will look after you."
~ Jesus, in Matthew 6:26
Usually we understand these words in their original context of Jesus reassuring his followers they need not worry or be anxious about provision. God will take care of them. However, I invite you to look at this verse from a different angle.
I mentioned above the adult chickadees using our birdhouse are relentless in caring for their young. All day long they flit back and forth from food source to home to food source to home.
On the one hand the adults are feeding their young, yet on the other hand Jesus says our heavenly Father is feeding their young. So who is doing the feeding - the chickadee parents or our heavenly Father?
The answer is, of course, both, and the truth of one does not nullify the truth of the other.
It was God's intention from the beginning of time to partner and co-create with his Creation. We read in Genesis 1 that humanity was given the task of stewarding the earth, and God gave them "every seed-bearing plant and all the fruit trees" for food. God provided the food, but humanity would need to gather the food for themselves. An angel wasn't going to drop off a food-basket at Adam and Eve's doorstep every morning.
Beyond food, God intends humanity to be co-creators of a flourishing life. Today, he wants to co-create with us the kingdom of God on earth. When we work with God to create beauty, justice, and peace, we are fulfilling our role as stewards of creation.
The key word in all this is "work." Work is one of the ways we partner with God.
PAUSE and REFLECT: Do you work hard for your provision? Good! Whether it's a 9-5 job, self-employment, or researching and managing investment opportunities, work is a gift.
Working does not make what we earn ours. It simply means we are partnering with God. He has given us health, skills, education, a job, etc, and we use those for our provision.
In other words, one of the ways God provides for you, like he provides for the birds of the air, is by giving you the ability and opportunity to work.
Beyond financial provision, studies show hard work fine tunes our brain, increases dopamine, builds confidence, lowers addictions, and leads to self-improvement. Surprisingly, it also leads to a higher sense of gratitude and to greater opportunities in the future. All these are also gifts from God.
When we ask God for provision, are there times he does provide the proverbial food basket on the doorstep? Definitely, but that's not the norm. We need to understand the most common way God provides is by partnering with us in some way.
What do you need today? By all means pray and ask God to provide, but don't stop there. Also ask him how he wants you to partner with him in the provision. By doing so, you will be fulfilling the words of Matthew 6:27-29, just like the chickadees in my birdhouse.
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