A Toast to the End of Half-Heartedness

 

Friday, August 26, 2022

God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts.  Use them well to serve one another.  Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you.  Do you have the gift of helping others?  Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies.  Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ.  All glory and power to him forever and ever!  Amen.  1 Peter 4:10-11

My Dad was fond of the idiom:  Jack-of-all-trades; master-of-none.  The first half of the saying was originally a compliment to indicate multi-tasking, being able to do a basketful of different trades (skills).  Later, some cynical troll added the second part, turning a bright compliment into a dig.  The troll was, according to some, Robert Greene, a late 16^th-century writer, who tweaked the compliment into a snide rebuke of another writer, who had turned from actor to writer of plays; fellow’s name was William Shakespeare.[1]

Apostle Peter, of the historical first-century, had cast his vote over 1,600 years before, encouraging excellence in whatever you do.  And, heading-off the elitist criticism from the beginning, Peter didn’t care what skill or skills you may employ, he says:  whatever you do, don’t do it half-heartedly, give it all you’ve got.

The sole reason for this is that each Christian disciple of Jesus Christ is given spiritual gifts to use in building the Kingdom of God, by building fellow believers.  To use any gift of God in a half-hearted manner is the character of an ingrate, unable, or unwilling to appreciate the holiness of God’s gifts, a slap in God’s face.

John Wesley, Founder of Methodism, wrote that Christian efforts at doing good were to be an unceasing quest for believers, doing all the good we can, by all the means we can, in all the ways and places we can, at all the times we can, and to all the people we can, for as long as ever we can.  This is a plea for the extermination of half-heartedness – a call to arms against mediocrity, and in support of excellent, unselfish service.

The kingdom of God was never advanced by people with a cavalier attitude, acting as if serving others was bothersome, or even optional, or required little personal sacrifice.  Serving God in any way, from the highest to lowest of positions is a holy endeavor, and must receive our best efforts.  As Oswald Chambers wrote, it must be my utmost for His highest!

For You Today

If you’re a preacher, singer, teacher, Sunday School worker, custodian, or keeper of the records…your best efforts belong to God.  He gave you those gifts because He has confidence you’ll use them well. 

A word from the deep well of Apostle Paul’s wisdom to do nothing half-heartedly:

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.  Colossians 3:23

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these:  Glory and Wise Choices

[1] Images:  Pixabay.com     Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©  

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[1] The Phrase Finder