Effort
1 Timothy 1:18
This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare
Many people talk a good game. Many people talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. The clichés are endless. There is very often a gap between talk and walk, between promise and performance and between vision and reality.
In the church, there are many who are doing nothing because they are waiting on God and some who are doing nothing because they had a vision, or a prophecy or a word from God that they are waiting to see come to pass.
God, in His own wisdom and sovereignty, has chosen to work with men and through men. Men, therefore, are required to get up and put in the effort to see the things that God has promised come to pass.
In this complicated and sometimes confusing passage in the opening chapter of Paul’s first letter to young Timothy, 1 Timothy 1:18-20, the Apostle makes a reference to prophecy and performance. He urges Timothy to put in the effort to see the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning him.
Prophetic words are usually indicative of the need for specific effort and not the end of effort. A word from God, no matter how great, or how powerful, or how dramatic is completely useless unless the hearer, listens, and integrates that word into their life.
There are the general promises of the word of God that apply to all of us who follow faithfully. And there are the specific promises that we each can receive from the same word of God as the Holy Spirit ministers it to our lives. And then many persons have received prophetic words as the Holy Spirit has worked through others like ministers. However, all of these promises, general or specific, require a level of effort on the part of the receiver.
My favourite example of promise (prophecy) and effort is the story of Noah and the Ark. God had come to a most dramatic and astonishing decision. God had decided then that the earth was corrupt, “for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” Genesis 6:11,12. God then decided to make a covenant with Noah, selecting Noah out of all the people on earth and giving him one of the most direct, specific, and prophetic words of the time.
If anyone had a word Noah did. God revealed His plan to Noah. He was going to flood the world and bring an end to all corruption. Noah, however, was to survive all of this. Here is how God put it to him, “But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.” Genesis 6:18
But God didn’t stop there. Noah wasn’t just going to survive the flood with his offspring and their spouses, thereby guaranteeing a continuity of the species. Noah was now given the onerous responsibility for the survival of all species. “And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.” Genesis 6:19
But that’s not the whole story. Most of us miss the fact that between the promise of God and boarding of the Ark there was effort required for a considerable period of time. Here is the word about the effort, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it:” Genesis 6:14,15. God outlined the specific type of materials required, the finishing technique and gave specific dimensions.
God, as it were, gave Noah the prophecy, the promise, and the engineering drawings.
Noah now had to put in the effort. He couldn’t pull up to Home Depot or order his materials online from Amazon. He had to head to the forest and identify the trees, gopherwood was a specific requirement. He had to fell the trees, cut and dress the wood and then haul those boards to the building site. He had to then measure and cut and hoist into position and nail. Think of doing all this without technology, think of the labour required just to get that done. Then think of acquiring the pitch and applying it without modern tools, and without cleaning products to get it easily off of the skin.
Jesus makes this point indirectly in the parable of the growing seed. Mark 4:26-29. There Jesus talks about the wonderful daily miracle of God who makes the seeds sprout and grow and yield a harvest of grain. But that miracle of God is sandwiched between two efforts of the farmer, he has to first “scatter seed on the grown” and then after the miracle of growth, “when the grain ripens,” he has to go out to harvest, he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Whatever the word we have received, whatever the word we are trusting to see come to pass, remember Paul’s advice to Timothy. The prophecies tell us what God is prepared to do for us, but the prophecies also demand of us a level of efforts in our participation with God to see them fulfilled.
On a closing note, sometimes when the harvest is really big we need the effort of others too. “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:37,38
Think on these things:
- Do you have a word from God that you are waiting to see fulfilled?
- What effort are you putting in right now to see God’s promise come to pass in your life?
- If necessary, make a plan today for a renewed effort to get to where God is taking you?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would put in the effort to work with God on His promises to us.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex