Tuesday after Sexagesima Sunday
Posted on February 6, 2024 by under
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 11:1- (NKJV)
11:1 Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.
2 Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; And if a tree falls to the south or the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie.
4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know what is the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child, so you do not know the works of God who makes everything.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
Devotion
As we go about the vocations which the Lord has given to us in this world, we would do well to remember that the outcome of our duties is not under our control. The Lord declared to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field.” (Gen. 3:17–18) The Lord gave him his vocation, but the effects of sin meant that sorrow and toil would accompany his labors.
We read in Ecclesiastes 11, “In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand; For you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.” Day by day, our vocations instruct us of our dependence on the Lord; how much greater, then, our awareness that that which is most needful—our salvation—is solely the work of the Lord, and we are those who simply freely receive this great blessing from the Lord. We do not know the outcome of our sowing, but the Lord’s sowing accomplishes that for which He has sent His Word. The Lord has sown His Word in us, and we rejoice in the hope which we have in our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Collect: O Lord God, Who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do: Mercifully grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
