Summer is now in full swing and people are taking advantage of it! These months provide opportunity for many people to “get away.” This can be a very good thing…or it can become a sad detour. I have seen so many people in these seasons go into vacation mode in their spiritual life! There is a difference between healthy distractions that refresh and renew and unhealthy ones that become a pitiful substitute for God’s best.
Distractions are everywhere. We must determine to serve God in every season. When the summer is done I want to be further along on my journey with Jesus – not trying to find my way back.
Recently I have been meditating on Proverbs 10:5, “He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.” Our Heavenly Father wants all of His children to be wise! Consider this principle in relationship to our own season…
- Summer is a season for FERVENCY. Literally, summer is a time for labor! This is not the day for less work; it is the day to intensify our efforts in reaching people for Christ. Notice in Solomon’s contrast that the opposite of fervent labor is sleep. We are either wide awake and alert to what God is doing in this world or we are sleeping through the harvest.
- Summer is a season for FRUITFULNESS. In the agricultural world of the Bible people understood seedtime and harvest. Harvest is near the end. We are living in the last days and soon the work will be over. This is our moment to “gather” as many souls as possible for the Master. Sin scatters – God gathers. Our lives are doing one or the other.
- Summer is a season that will not last FOREVER. It is only a season…an all too short one! The prophet Jeremiah lamented that at the end of such a season his own people still were not saved, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20). May God help us to make these days count and not miss what He has for us!
- Summers is a season for which we will answer to the FATHER. The tone of the verse is a family tone. Not an employer speaking to a servant, but a father and son relationship. As surely as earthly children can shame their fathers, God’s children can bring shame to the Heavenly Father. What will we say when we meet the Father? More importantly, what will He say?
Pause and ask the Lord to help you stay close to Him and in pursuit of His will this summer. You may also want to read “How to Make this the Greatest Summer of Your Life” for 6 practical suggestions the we all could apply today. May God bless you, your family, and your church family this summer.
“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16).
