Put your muscle...

..where your mouth is.



I'm sure a lot of us have heard the age-old saying "Put your money where your mouth is" which essentially challenges us to demonstrate how much we believe in something by supporting it, especially financially. I know a number of ministers of the gospel use this "line" to encourage us to give...more money to the ministry. 

With all this coaxing, many of us stretch out our hands with cash rather than extend our hearts with care.

This is the very reason why I felt led to challenge us to "Put our muscle, where our mouth is - not just our money." I am not saying, by any stretch of imagination, that money is not important. It is very important! The challenge is that a lot of us are much more willing (and I say this carefully), to give of our money rather than give our muscle - time and talents.

I'm always amused when I attend any open forum (especially in church) and people are asked to consider the way things are and come up with suggestions on how to make things better and move things forward. What a deluge of ideas come forth! Have you been in any such fora? Like my pastor - Pastor Tony Rapu - used to say (in the 1990s),

"After all is said and done, more is said than done."

It is a sad reality that some people are much better at pointing out all that's wrong and what somebody - anybody but them should do about it. The fact of life is that when we sit back and suggest that anybody can do what everybody should do, rather than step up and do some of what needs to be done, you'll quickly realise that nobody does anything.
In some other cases, only "one-body" (or few bodies) ends up doing what anybody can/everybody should do. We can all step up if we want to and we should want to.

God talks about each of us stepping up vs. sitting back - speaking through our brother Paul:

2 Corinthians 8:7 - You are rich [excel] in everything—in faith, in speaking, in knowledge, in truly wanting to help [eagerness; zeal], and in the love you learned [that is in you] from us. In the same way, be strong [excel] also in the grace of giving. (Expanded Bible, italics mine)

Wanting to help is very different from actually helping. And Yes, it takes grace - divine ability - to give money and muscle. I encourage us all to go beyond putting our money where our mouths are and also put our muscles there too...in Paul's words again:

So my dear [beloved] brothers and sisters, stand strong. Do not let anything move you. Always give yourselves fully to [excel in] the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted [not useless/in vain]. (Expanded Bible, italics mine)

God will bless you as you continually put your muscle...

...not just your money, where your mouth is.

For further reading:
http://sapphire-and-beryl.blogspot.com/2012/08/die-empty.html