Have thy tools ready; God will find thee work.
Charles Kingsley (1)
It was the Tuesday after Labor Day, when I received a call from my bank asking me if I had made 23 purchases with my debit card at the local hardware store over the Labor Day Weekend. I had.
That weekend I was tackling a home improvement project. It seemed that every 20 minutes I had to run to the Hardware Store to purchase a tool, buy a bolt, or retrieve more materials. While my heart and mind was ready to work, I was ill prepared to complete the project.
Those 23 trips to the Hardware Store consumed 8 hours of my time and 15 gallons of gas. Some of the trips were to exchange items which I did not need for items I would have known I needed if I had planned ahead.
By Monday afternoon the sales clerks and cashiers avoided me when I reentered the Hardware Store asking for help. While I eventually finished the project, it consumed a whole 4 day weekend.
My wife offered the best summary of the experience:
“It would have been easier to ask someone else to do it!”
I wonder how often God thinks the same when He has work for us to do for Him.
God has work for us to do, but the work goes undone because we are not prepared. We have failed to prepare our heart, mind, and hands through prayer and study.
I wonder what the world would be like if every Christian had their tools readied for God’s work.
I bet the world would be a different place.
“Always be prepared to explain to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” (2)
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Samuel G. Hardman and Dwight Lyman Moody, Thoughts for the Quiet Hour (Willow Grove, PA: Woodlawn Electronic Publishing, 1998).
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1 Peter 3:15.
Bread Crumbs - Devotions for Life 