BUILD RESERVE

Proverbs 20:4 Sluggards do not plow in season; so at harvest time they look but find nothing

Whoever walks to the teller in a bank with a withdrawal slip, cheque book or ATM card will have done so with the knowledge that there is a reserve available.  A bounced cheque from one’s own account if not a technical error, is likely as answer to the question “you have no reserve to draw from”.

Life happens. That will sound like a cliché, meant to comfort in specific circumstances, but life really does happen.   Hence, there will be moments in time when it may become challenging to complete both natural and spiritual exercises that you used to. Even if you did, perhaps not at the same intensity.

You might have been able to study or pray for hours uninterrupted frequently, connected with everyone and anyone for hours unending. But now with additional commitments, perhaps these have become unattainable. What you draw on in those periods is the capacity, muscle and reserve you would have built up leading to those moments. That will become the default position you fall back to.

Beloved, as much as our good intentions go, life happens and circumstances change. Like Joseph’s interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream, highlighting 7 years of plenty and the 7 years of empty; our charge is to anticipate such changes and build up reserve to meet them. That includes natural, spiritual, financial, and relational reserve.

In times of plenty, laying up reserve may seem irrelevant, but they will become what you draw from in seasons of empty. Therefore, how much you have to draw from, will depend on how much deposits you have made. The core question then is ‘

have you made enough consistent deposits over time to qualify for a withdrawal when life makes a demand?

#sly