Profitable Labor of Love

"In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty."

Proverbs 14:23

Before I went to bed last night, I read this proverb of Solomon recorded in scripture.  I considered how this statement is true on many levels.  There are those who cannot speak and work at the same time.  Instead of working, they spend much of their working hours talking.  Then I thought about how common "chatting" is these days either online, with text messaging, or in person.  Not only does superficial chatting waste time that could be spent more effectively, but it leads to poverty in relationships.

We all know marriages and other close interpersonal relationships require a good deal of labor and maintenance.  Unless we have conversations of depth where we share our feelings, struggles, and dreams, it is virtually impossible to really get to know someone else.  For me personally, when I have conversations of depth it enables me to better understand what I am feeling and thinking as well as others.  The labor of putting my feelings into words works wonders in aiding me to know what actions I should take.

Would it be better to have 100 people to chat with or one person to whom you can bare your soul?  I say the latter.  But such a friendship will have a cost associated with it.  It is hard labor to trust someone enough to share your heart.  It makes us vulnerable and forces us to invest our love in someone else without any fall-back plan.  I will never trade the close friendships I have for a million superficial ones, and thankfully I don't have to.  What richness friends bring to our lives!

All relationships I have on earth pale in comparison to the relationship that God has with me and I with Him.  He always has my back - and my front - both in the spiritual and physical realm.  God understands all I have and will experience perfectly.  Jesus is a friend who indeed sticks closer than a brother.  I have a younger brother I love very much, and there is hardly a person I am more proud or fond of.  But he lives far away in the United States while I live in Sydney, and even when we enjoy time together it is only temporary:  we have families, jobs, lives, marriages, children, and ministries which demand our attention.  Nothing can separate me from the tangible love and presence of Jesus Christ except my own sin.  And even when I fall into sin when I draw near to God in humble repentance He draws near to me according to His Word.  What a friend we have in Jesus!

The same principle which applies in marriages and friendships applies to the relationship we have with God.  If all our prayers are idle chatter and superficial, we won't know Him very well.  Poverty would better describe our relationship instead of richness and depth.  Whatever we sow, we will reap.  If you plant one row of carrots, you would be a fool to expect the whole field to be fruitful.  Unless we are willing to labor in our pursuit of Christ and fortifying our relationship with Him, we will have a poor relationship indeed.  Our relationship with God will be laborious if it is healthy and good, and it is wise to invest in this eternal partnership God has offered by His grace to us.

Allow me to encourage you with a passage found in Galatians 6:9-10:  "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. [10] Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith."  This passage is often used to illustrate how we ought to do good unto our brothers in sisters in Christ.  But how much more should we do good unto our Brother, Savior, and Redeemer Jesus Christ, who is the HEAD of the Household of Faith!  Let us labor for Jesus making use of every opportunity He gives us.  There is no one richer than a man who is a friend of God.