To Encourage You

Galatians 6:10 “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

Yesterday I had a wonderful time fishing for bass on the Juniata River.  That river is one of my favorite places in all the world to be and fishing there is one of the favorite things in all of life I like to do.  As I was thinking about this, my mind turned to my dad.  As I grew up, fishing and hunting with him were some of my best memories. It’s certainly the root of my love for these hobbies today.  My dad, his brothers, and many of my cousins loved these things and I inherited that love from them. But then this sobering thought hit me: all these uncles (my dad had nine brothers!) but two are now dead, and my father and one of his surviving brothers can’t hunt and fish anymore because of their health. 

As I thought further on this topic, my thoughts turned to the passage above from Galatians 6.  It’s about the topic of opportunities, and more specifically, the opportunities that the Lord has given His followers to do good to others.  The verse immediately before this tells us one of the reasons that this is important. It says, “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”  It’s a wonderful promise to all believers, but it’s subject to the issue of time.  It’s the context in which the word “opportunity” is couched.  For you see, opportunities are things which come and go.  In reference to our hobbies, while we have the physical strength and mental capacity to enjoy them, they are wonderful blessings in our life.  But there’s likely coming a time for most of us when our strength will ebb, and our mental capacities will diminish.  Like my father and uncles, there is likely coming a time in the not-too-distant future when my time fishing and hunting will decline greatly and possibly cease. 

Solomon spoke of this issue in the following words: “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, ‘I have no pleasure in them’; before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened and the clouds return after the rain, in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men are bent, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those who look through the windows are dimmed, and the doors on the street are shut—when the sound of the grinding is low, and one rises up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song are brought low— they are afraid also of what is high, and terrors are in the way; the almond tree blossoms, the grasshopper drags itself along, and desire fails, because man is going to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets— before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (Ecclesiastes 12:1-8).

In context, Solomon was speaking not just of the simple pleasures of life which come and go, but also about the opportunities to serve our Savior that come and go, and the fact that the way we handle them will have impacts for all eternity.  And so Solomon would echo the same timeless words of the apostle Paul above, i.e., “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”  But then Solomon ends his book with these words, pointing us to why obeying these words is so critical, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

May God help each and every one of us to heed these wise admonitions.