Elbow Grease
‘…and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ (Mark 12:30 – NASB)
What in the world is elbow grease?
It is a term my family has used for as long as I can remember to denote someone expending every effort to do a good job. When “No-half-Measures” is the rule of a person’s life; when he or she expends every effort to a task, we say that person has a lot of “elbow grease.”
When scraping a pot to remove stubborn grime, my daughter would go at it with a pot cleaner with such gusto, we would say, “My, she is using a lot of ‘elbow grease’ to getting that pot clean.”
I think the term is exemplified in our text by the little word “all.”
Love the LORD with:
ALL your heart…
ALL your soul…
ALL you mind…
ALL your strength…
I don’t think our Lord is pleased with half-hearted devotion. His words to the church at Laodicea illustrates this:
‘I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will [a]spit you out of My mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16 – NASB)
Give it All You’ve Got!
(© Wednesday 18th June 2014 – by Christopher Shennan)
Give it all you’ve got, believer,
Reach out with faith to grasp the prize;
Don’t hold back your service, rendered,
Or the true work of love despise.
The work of faith demands your all,
Not just a part of it will do;
A little here, and a little there
Will never be enough for you.
Not perfection, our Lord demands,
That’s out of reach for you and I,
But your heart and soul surrendered
Will better please the Master’s eye.
Half-hearted service; love grown cold,
Should never be offered our King;
It’s a slap in His face, an insult –
It’s an unworthy offering.
So give it all you’ve got, my friend;
Make an offering that’ll please
And joy will bubble out of you
That not another can receive.
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Gems of Discovery - Nuggets of Truth 