By David ReayTuesday 30 Aug 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless. (NLT)
An old story tells of a traveller in earlier times coming across a pair of men chipping away at a pile of stones near a quarry. He asked one man what he was doing and he replied that he was simply breaking up rocks. He asked the other man the same question and his reply was that he was helping build the cathedral under construction in the nearby town.
Two ways of describing our own everyday activities. One simply sees the immediate task at hand. The other grasps the bigger picture. Our text today reminds us that there is a bigger picture. Paul has reminded his readers of the new life and new era brought about by the resurrection of Jesus. He urges them to serve Jesus in the light of this.
None of us knows the exact result of what we do, but we are playing our part in living out the rule of God in our world. Our own individual efforts will not of themselves establish this rule, but who knows how they finally contribute to the ushering in of God’s kingdom?
We are not to be sitting on our hands waiting for God to establish his rule. We have work to do as part of that process. Then again, we are not to imagine we can bring in the kingdom of God in its completeness by our own hard work. We work, but finally it is the work of God.
We might feel at times as if we are just chopping rocks, but remember we are actually building a cathedral.
Blessings,
David