Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters

This was a post that I put on another blogsite that I had...I post it here!
I was blessed the other day with some thoughts out of Ecclesiastes 11:1-6. Caution needs to be noted when we use Ecclesiastes because Solomon writes some of it from the perspective of excluding God hence the term "under the Sun" (1:3). By the time he gets to chapter 11, he is beginning to put God back into the equation.Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth. 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. He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. 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. 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. (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 NKJV)I have often wondered what the words "cast your bread upon the waters" means. I usually picture someone throwing bread out there for the birds, and seeing how the bread gets soggy. I really do not want that to come back. I learned recently what King Solomon must have had in mind when he said "cast your bread." For him bread was grain. He would send his grain out to other nations on his ships. He says to "give servings to seven and eight," signifying the sending the investment out in several ways. The nations will return with their ships of trade after they received Solomon's, thereby opening up a profitable trade relationship. He advises us not to "put all of our eggs into one basket," if something were to go wrong with that ONE ship then all would be lost.This agrees with the rest of the verses with what Solomon is trying to say. The words "you do not know" appear several times. We truly do not know which venture God will bless. In our ministry we need to diversify to allow God to bless whatever He will.I have served the Lord in ministry for 15 years and He has never told me what venture He will bless. I have had times where I have waited for things to be perfect and that never comes and so nothing happens. Beware of of sitting around waiting for God to give you what to do so that you will be guaranteed of 100% success...you will wait your life away.There are ventures that I have done that the Lord has richly blessed and there are ventures that have been dismal failures. Many would have you in these days to just focus on one spot...why? Get out there and do a variety of things for the Lord...you don't know what will produce fruit. Some will come immediately, some will not come until "after many days." If we want to reap a harvest, we need to sow our seed in the morning and not eat the bread of idleness in the evening.I will apply this to something simple like going to church. Some people go to church once a week on Sunday morning during the worship hour. What happens if the worship is bad, or the preacher is not doing well that morning? What if that person were to add another time like Sunday evening worship, Sunday School and Midweek Prayer? They can increase the rate of return by adding these to their lives. A person can increase such even more with a daily prayer time...I hope you get my meaning...I will close with a wonderful quote from Dr. Warren Wiersbe on this passage:"Life is an adventure of faith, and each of us is like a merchant investing today in taht which will pay dividends tomorrow. We are like the farmer, sowing various kinds of seeds in different soils, trusting God for the harvest."