January 14, 2011
Increase or Decrease
Many people read and took to heart, The Prayer of Jabez, a book written by Bruce Wlikinson. The basis of the book comes from Jabez asking God to bless him and enlarge his territory. The theme for believers is to increase their spiritual territory. Ezekiel gives us another passage to consider when the Lord says, “So I stretched out my hand against you and reduced your territory; I gave you over to the greed of your enemies…” (Eze 16:27 NIV) We sometimes forget that any increase or decrease in territory comes not from our abilities and desires, but from God.
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Gail;
-----I wish to respectfully add an important concept to the idea that any increase or decrease of our territory comes not from our abilities and desires, but from God. I acknowledge the important point I believe this idea makes about nothing being possible without God. That is true. But God is faithful to His principles as well as to us. We were made according to His principle of free-will. Being God, He can do anything He desires. But being faithful, He does not crush the free-will He also gives. And with that free-will comes attached the difficult principles of personal responsibility and competence.
-----The Book of Proverbs is replete with wisdom about industriousness and prosperity, not only in the material sense, but also in the sense of knowledge and spirituality. If you don’t till, you have nowhere to sow. If you don’t sow, you have nothing to reap. If you don’t reap, what your fields have grown rots and you have nothing to sell, consume, or store. We continue to live in the age of , “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread...” (Gen 3:19) So, if we desire material prosperity we must work hard and interact with the community. If we desire knowledge, we must study hard and interact with the community. If we desire spirituality, we must obey precisely and interact with the community. Our brows must actually sweat.
-----We must do a lot of things to prosper - for our territories to expand, so to speak. One of those things we must do is to realize that we can not do everything. In fact, the very much we can do is a very small portion of what must be done. The community is a neighborhood of countless other individuals, most of whom are also eating by the sweat of their brows. I can not substantially change who they are or what they do, and God does not choose to do so, being faithful to His principle of free-will. But amongst all of their interactions arise multitudes of opportunities. The more they all recognize God in their lives, the more He is able to orchestrate those opportunities for good fortune and prosperity of all kinds. The less they recognize Him, the more opportunity arises for misfortune. But however bad the community may be, God is always able to orchestrate some opportunity for the prosperity of those who diligently seek Him with brows sweating. And I have not even addressed the opportunities and importunities of the forces of nature being completely out of man’s control (sorry Al Gore.)
-----I acknowledge the greater part of my expanding territory to be from God’s orchestration of all opportunities. But without my sweating effort to be in the right place at the right time with the right abilities and right desires, all of these opportunities will roll right on past me, most of them not even being noticed by me. My territory will dwindle; my belly will growl; my silos will shelter dank air and spiders. Therefore, I acknowledge my life to be a partnership with God. Maybe in outright effort it is a 1% my effort -99% His effort partnership, and hopefully it is a 1% mine -99% His partnership in profits. But the fact remains, if there is no partnership then I am no more.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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