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Family Matters

No Sweat!

By Therese Marszalek

Walk. Eat. The two words understood by our yellow Lab, Cooper, fill positions of high priority. Walk causes Cooper to leap from sound sleep and bound for the door while barking and dancing in circles. Eat provokes a similar response. When our daughter stirs in the morning, Cooper dashes into her room, does his leap-and-spin jig, then sticks to her like glue until she feeds him.

One morning Cooper faced a doggy dilemma when my husband scooped out his breakfast. After dishing up the nougats, Tom grabbed his shoes and the leash, then set the luscious morsels in front of Cooper.

Cooper panicked. His priorities teased him. Cooper’s mouth watered while Tom stood with leash in hand, ready to head out for a walk.

Cooper danced. He eyed Tom, then food, then leash. Running from Tom to food, Cooper couldn’t decide what to do. Unable to prioritize, he ran in circles, confused.

After gobbling a crunchy mouthful, Cooper dashed for the front door. Leashed and ready to run, he leapt out the door and danced down the sidewalk dragging Tom behind. After a brisk stroll, Cooper bolted in the door, sped to his food, and wolfed the rest of his breakfast as his tail swept the floor.

Does God witness a similar scenario when numerous activities cry in unison for our attention? Because activity overload can spin us out of balance, we must prioritize to avoid physical and spiritual burnout. Fortunately God took the guesswork out of the priority puzzle by instructing us in His Word.

First, God wants to be number one (Exodus 20:3). Although people, ministry, career, hobbies and money compete for position, nothing can come before God.

Secondly, God likens the love between a husband and wife to Christ’s love for the Church (Ephesians 5:31,32). By nurturing and keeping the marriage relationship God-centered, families flourish.

Although serving is key to building God’s kingdom, marriage and family suffer when all energies are poured into ministry. Can we effectively minister outside our home without ministering in our home? Proverbs 16:9 says, “In his heart a man plans his course but the Lord determines his steps.” God determines our steps and helps us prioritize daily. If we make God’s priorities our priorities, all will be well.

Good activities aren’t necessarily God activities. If we exhaust our time on activities God never intended for us, we fall short of accomplishing His divine purpose. If we’re overloaded, even good things can make us spin our wheels and toil on unfruitful projects.

The first time sweat is mentioned in the Bible is after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden. “Cursed is the ground because of you, through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life… By the sweat of your brow you will eat bread (Genesis 3:17-19).

When the ground was cursed, it couldn’t yield fruit without human effort. Fleshly effort produces sweat. Without God’s blessing on our activities, we strive and sweat, yet produce little fruit.

If your activities spring forth from seeking God in prayer and you’re fueled with God’s ability to accomplish all He called you to do, striving becomes unnecessary. Spiritual work is God’s work and when He works, you don’t need to expend unnecessary effort. If you’re sweating it out, you may be serving your own agenda instead of God’s agenda.
What’s on your agenda? Let God set your course, then don’t sweat it!

THERESE MARSZALEK, ordained minister and founder of Breaking Out Ministries, is the author of Extraordinary Miracles in the Lives of Ordinary People and Miracles Still Happen (Harrison House). She lives in Spokane, and can be reached at www.breakingoutministries.com