Rise and Shine

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

Did you hear the story of the old mountaineer couple sitting in front of their fireplace just whiling away the time? Finally, the wife said, “Jed, I think it’s raining. Go outside and check, will ya?”

Jed just sat there. She asked a second time. Same response. After a long period of silence, she asked a third time, “I think it’s raining. Go outside and check, will ya?”

Jed didn’t move his gaze from the fire. He let out a little sigh, then said, “Ah shucks, Maggie. Why don’t ya just call in the dog and see if he’s wet?”

I’m not sure if he was lazy or being practical…OK, he was lazy! And laziness is something every Christ follower must deal with. When I find in myself a tinge of laziness, I like to read biographies of men and women who accomplished great things for God. 

Take John Wesley, for example. It was estimated that he traveled 250,000 miles on horseback in his ministry. He ministered about 40 years, so that comes out to about 20 miles per day. He preached over 4,000 sermons. He produced about 400 books or booklets. He learned 10 languages. 

To top that off, when he was 83, he wrote in his diary that he was annoyed in that he could no longer write 15 hours a day without his eyes hurting. At age 86, he complained in his diary that he had an increasing tendency to lie in bed until 5:30 in the morning! 

Enough already! It’s time for me to “rise and shine, and give God the glory. Glory!” How about you? There is so much to be done.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Galatians 6:9