An ant is a marvelous creature. It can easily carry grains of sand 20 times its own body weight. TheIncredibleAnt.com tells us, however, that 20 times is only the starting place for the humble ant. In times of duress, some of these minute creatures can lift as much as 100 times their weight.
That’s incredible! This tiny creature can do so much with the muscles God’s given it. With enough effort, those grains of sand, multiplied many times over, will become a mountain we have to walk around if we want to get to the other side.
What gives the ant the ability to perform such herculean tasks? The answer is found in its size, the fact that it’s so small in the first place. The tinier a creature is, the more muscle it has in comparison to its total body mass. The larger an animal is, the more of its muscle mass is needed just to move its body about.
Let’s give a cheer to the ant, the greatest body-builder of all time!
The same is true of us as individual Christians. The pastors of the great churches that dominate our television screens are the elephants of the world, able to lumber along, pushing down trees along the way. We look at them and feel so small. We forget that with Christ as our muscular framework, our tiny-ness is our strength. With Christ, we can easily do 20 times the good we ever did on our own, and in times of extreme need, we can give support to 100 times the people we helped before we came to know our Savior.
Proverbs 6:6 tells us:
“[Learn from] the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.”
The Word is telling us several things in this passage:
First, we are to “learn from the ant.”
How do we do that? We look beyond the flashiness of those who seem to have “made it” in this life. We look past the cars, the houses, and the extravagant lifestyles. That’s not what drives God. That’s not his passion. The things we own and strut before the world mean nothing to him.
Second, we must be aware of ourselves.
“Sluggard” is a synonym for lazy clod. What’s the last thing we did for God besides writing a check and dropping it in the offering plate? When did we last teach a Sunday school class, mow the church lawn, or head a committee? If we work only for ourselves, then we are a sluggard in God’s eyes, no matter how fine the material possessions we parade on Sunday mornings.
Third, we should “consider her ways.”
How does the ant work? How is it successful? The answer is simple. The ant is unafraid to take on the big tasks, and it cooperates with its fellow ants to provide support for the entire colony.
Finally, we are to “be wise.”
We are to display wisdom in how we use our time. Just as God expects us to devote time to him, if we expend so much effort for the Church that our children feel forgotten, where is the wisdom in that?
Our Christian lives are about balance. We can lift 20 times our weight in Christ, and even more when the need arises, but we must be sure that our families, our jobs, our churches, and our personal lives are considered in all that we do. Ephesians 5:15 reminds us:
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise.”
We might feel like a lowly ant, with tiny stature and little presence, but walking in the wisdom of God makes us a mighty warrior, able to do more and greater things than we ever thought possible. The grains of sand we move in our lifetime of service to God will soon amount to a mountain of achievements for him.
The greatest achievements for God are realized one step at a time.
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