“Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture they do not understand, but the passages that bother me are those I do understand.” — Mark Twain

The Hazards of Coasting

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might” – Ecclesiastes 9:10

As I was sitting in my study wondering what I wanted to read, I randomly opened my Bible and looked at the first underlined verse that caught my eye, and “Whatever you hand finds to do, do it with all your might” jumped off the page. My first thought after reading that was, “I wonder how many times I’ve actually used all my might to do the work at hand, and how many times I’ve just coasted?”

There are certain things I can do without giving it much thought. Although taking out the trash and making the coffee come to mind, I was actually thinking more about certain areas of ministry. I began to wonder: How many times have I entered a ministry situation without proper preparation, only to find myself not only coasting on my familiarity with the subject, but also coming up short? This happened recently at a Friday night fellowship I started.

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