Tuesday, June 28, 2022

6-29-2022

 Good Morning!    

              Genesis 3:18; “The ground will grow thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat wild plants.”

     Do you remember the old pop song, “Working in the Coal Mine?”  Lee Dorsey sang it; Booker T am the MGs sang it even the Judds sang it.  It was a song about working all the time but never getting ahead.

                FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNIN' I'M UP BEFORE THE SUN

             WHEN MY WORKDAY IS OVER, I'M TOO TIRED FOR HAVIN' FUN.”

I think most of us feel that way.  Work, work, work seems to be all we do, and it seems we never get anything accomplished.  It can seem like we are only spinning our wheels.  This can leave us feeling empty.

    This is part of the consequences of sin in our world and in our life.  Nothing will come to us in this world easily.  Nothing will be ours in a simple fashion.  The worst part is that others will seem to get things easily all the while we are working very hard.  This is part of the isolation of sin.  This is part of the devil telling us that we are alone.  We will only work and work and never get ahead.  We will always have too much month at the end of the money.  This is what the devil and the world will tell us.

     Our verse is both a pronouncement of punishment but also a warning of our life.  God is telling Adam that he will work and work hard for his food his whole life.  Apart from God and his grace, our life is futile.  This is what Solomon meant when he wrote, “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” everything is a futile effort without God and his love.  Our work will be just that: work.  Our life will be work that at times will seem to be futile and sometimes worthless because sin has separated us from God.

    This is why God had to intervene into our lives.  We were going to be in this endless cycle without him.  We were going to being running in a spinning wheel like a gerbil.  So it was out of love that God stepped in to break that cycle.  Jesus came to put us back right with God.  He restored our relationship with God and his love and grace.

    We will still have to work and work hard.  There will still be weeds and thorns in our life; there will be things that occur that make life difficult to live.  Yet we do not walk that life alone and we do not face those battles with no one there to comfort us.  God is there to guide us, to guard us from the devil, to give us the certainty of hope in our salvation.  So, we can look at all the weeds and see them for what they are, temporary pain in our journey with Christ.  There will be weeds but above all there is God’s grace.

Gracious Father, Our life is weedy and hard and without your love it is futile.  Guard us with your loving arms and give us the strength to live our life for you.  Be with those who are struggling today and only see weeds in their life.  Bring them into your gracious arms and give them the peace and comfort they need. In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret          

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