Thursday, October 2, 2014

People Must Be Stirred And Willing

"Then everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing, and they brought the Lord's offering for the work of the tabernacle of meeting, for all its service, and for the holy garments."
Exodus 35:21 (NKJV)

In the Old Testament we read about Israel traveling from Egypt to the Promised Land.  As Israel traveled through the wilderness God spoke to Moses about building the tabernacle.  We can read many details about how the tabernacle was built, but to build it some materials were necessary.  God told Moses to receive an offering from the people to get the things that they needed for the tabernacle and the clothing that the priests would wear, this is what we see in Exodus 35.  What happened when the people brought the offering is a very interesting part of the story.

Once Moses told the people what was needed, all of the people who were stirred and willing came and brought an offering.  In the next chapter (Exodus 36:7) we read that they finally had to stop the people from giving because there was too much!  That is obviously not a normal type of offering.  A key point is that people were stirred to do something and they were also willing, so they actually did something.  Often when people hear about a need it stirs them up and makes them want to get involved.  But unless those people are willing and then do something not much is really going to happen.

What is needed in any project is people who are not only stirred up but people who are willing to do what it takes to get things done.  We see from the story in Exodus that when the stirred and willing people did something it more than met the need.  Often needs go unmet and work goes undone because people may be stirred but they are not willing to do what is necessary.  People may be stirred about something, they may even believe that doing something is good, but unless people willingly get involved not much will happen.  Are you simply stirred or are you also willing to get involved?  People who possess both of these traits are necessary to do what needs to be done.

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