Do You Have a Clean Manger?

Proverbs 14:4 Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox. ESV

I like this proverb. You might want a clean stable, but if you don't have oxen feeding and, um, doing the things oxen do after they eat, you won't have them around to do work for you in the fields.

Now I know most of us don't even live on farms anymore ("where does food come from, Mommy?" "Why, from the store shelves of course, dear!").  But I think there is good application to life as well. Because we as humans are basically only as active as we need to be, the tendency is to want to get things with as little effort as possible.

When it comes to growing in our relationship with Christ, the same thing applies. We'd rather God just download His character into our lives like a computer program. It doesn't work that way, though. God works His character in us through diligent study of His Word, active access to our lives by the Holy Spirit, difficult trials that seem to bend and break us, and constant choices as to whether we follow our conscience or ignore it.

We want the character (the crops produced by the oxen) but we don't want all the mess of the process (a very dirty stable). But just as crops don't come except by the strength of the oxen, so too the character of God does not come to us without effort.

Paul said: "...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil 2:12). This could also be translated "put your back into it!" You don't earn it by works, but you work at it as God works through the messes in our lives to work in His life and your salvation.


Pastor Tom