The Gift of Work

"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth." Ephesians 4:28

When I first came to the country and keen to speak English, I discovered that some of the expressions I heard from people around me, were considered ‘four letter words’. This I learned, was a kind way of referring to profane, vulgar or offensive terminology that should be shunned and not imitated.

Sometimes in jest someone would refer to work as a ‘four letter word’, implying that work can be unpleasant, frustrating or something to be avoided.

There is no doubt that the necessity of work can be at times trying, tiring and bothersome, making many desire to escape the responsibility and sidestep its daily yoke and the effort that comes with it. This has provided the market for ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes and other man-made attempts at evading the regular toil or (another terminology I found rather strange at first) the ‘rat race’!

Meaningful and purposeful employment was part of what God scheduled for His new creation. When he made man he gave Adam the task of tending the garden in which he had been placed. We know then that ‘work’ existed before sin entered the human race, but this kind of work was to be a pleasure. It didn't imply deadlines, time checks, or bosses to drive production and neither was there mention of wages or paying bills!

It wasn't until after the fall of man, that work became a necessity for survival and that it would be represented by ‘the sweaty brow’ of labour and toil. This is mentioned in Genesis, as part of the ‘curse’ which was placed upon man, as a result of sin. From that point on,  food would not just grow naturally out of the ground with minimal or casual ‘tending’; there would now be the labour of ploughing, seeding, cultivating, reaping, storing and preparing. Sweaty enterprises indeed!

Perhaps it is as a result of our sinful condition that we register the task of daily work as the bane of our lives! This is however a wrong attitude to take towards this exercise. It is interesting that God included this necessary toil in the life of fallen man. Without it we would lack purpose, discipline and means, and might invest even more time into mischief and sin. 

Keeping the right attitude towards work is important especially as Christians. The modern motivation of working to accumulate material possessions, can become a self-made prison, one from which few escape unscathed. The worldly outlook of working for position, prestige or to lord it over others, again is not only inappropriate for believers, but lacks in any real meaning or depth of purpose. Deprecating work as a ‘four letter word’ or as a useless, self-defeating and pointless ‘rat-race’, is also evidence of a wrong outlook on this clearly God-mandated, direction for human life.

The text suggests something of a revolutionary and probably to our natural minds an absurd motivation for working. Yet when we stop and really think about it for a moment, this is the most sensible and most fulfilling reason we could possibly have as Christians to spend ourselves in daily toil. The scripture directs the changed, saved and now in-Christ individual firstly to abandon the thinking of the past life of sin (stealing – trying to get by without honest employment), and secondly to labour, making genuine efforts with the skills and abilities God has given him to produce good things!

 

Work, far from being a senseless inconvenience, can be a monument of love, care and a force for promoting good to the glory of God. It is an opportunity to demonstrate the right heart, spirit and mind towards God and fellow-man by appreciating that instead of our existence having been ended by a just God through death-deserving judgement on our sin, we were harnessed to achieve good, useful and powerful results. Work is in fact a gift from God for fallen humanity.

We labour to provide for our needs and the needs of our family. In many instances however, if are honest with ourselves, we translate and transpose many of our  ‘wants’ into ‘needs’, and this often, is what keeps us at the task of toiling longer and harder than would normally be necessary. It is this redefining too, that often requires more than one wage in a family, because ‘making ends meet’ has taken on new and much wider meaning than just the provision of basic necessities. 

Yet here in this verse, is the ultimate and gloriously challenging motivation to fire up and be a driving force for our earthly labours, work and toil  - “….that we may have to give to him that needeth”! How many of us ever go to work and labour with this motive in heart: “so that I may have the means of giving to the poor, needy and destitute”! How often have we considered that a valid reason for working, is so we can be charitable and give to someone else, who is in a lesser condition than ourselves? Should we allow ourselves to believe and practice His Word so altruistically, we would likely find the purpose and fulfilment we so greatly long for, and the contentment that escapes us.

It seems the Lord really knows how to challenge our limited and selfish human thinking and provide us, through our labour, effort and work, with the opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of those around us who are in need.  Doing this too 'as unto the Lord' instead of just for money or out of duty, is a healthier attitude to have towards work. We have a fresh daily occasion in our employment and work to shine out a light of love and true godly selflessness that pleases the Lord and brings Him glory.This is the message of the cross that, as He gave at great cost, we too as His disciples may give.

So....no, work is NOT a ‘four-letter’ word!



See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Sharing in Joy and Sorrow

 “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Romans 12:15 

The emotions of rejoicing and weeping are two of the most common and recognisable human traits. Each in their own time and way can bring relief, solace and comfort. Most people are quite capable of these emotions and can easily relate to the benefits that can come from expressing them.

When we are the source of the rejoicing or the weeping, we often look for and are encouraged by someone who can share in those emotions with us. When we rejoice, we usually want others to know what good or exciting thing has taken place in our lives and find increased pleasure in a person who genuinely congratulates, cheers and celebrates with us. In most cases the opposite also holds true. Although there is a new bent of thinking which generally resents sympathetic expressions of concern,  usually when we find ourselves in crisis, sorrow, grief, or hardship has befallen us, our soul longs for consideration, understanding and sincere acknowledgement. Even if the words spoken to us are few or tentative, the feeling transmitted by genuine empathy comforts and soothes our jarred and jaded being.

The focus of the verse before us however, is not how we ought to rejoice or sorrow in our own situations, but rather how we should behave in other people’s joys and sorrows. When we find that others are genuine in the expression of these emotions and make a heart-felt display of them, how should we react?

At face value, it could appear that the entire issue is quite simple. After all what's so difficult about being happy with those that are happy and sad with those that are sad? Yet when considered carefully the matter is far from easy and requires a little more of us than just a happy or sad demeanour. In fact we often are guilty of dismissing this practice too lightly, with mere platitudes, pat phrases or clichés. This may stem from the fact that we have replaced the true meaning of joy for just happiness and the true meaning of sorrow for just sadness. 

When we encounter someone’s rejoicing we can easily verbalise ‘I am happy for you’, without really feeling anything positive towards the person’s elation, or worse by being indifferent, envious or resentful toward them for their happiness. Some have even become artists at ‘ruining’ the rejoicing of others by unkind and purposeful put-downs.  

Conversely when faced with someone’s sorrow, we may evade the difficulty and embarrassment of the moment with lame excuses or changing subjects. We may feel we are being imposed upon, after all we ‘have plenty of hassles of our own’; or utter stereo-typed responses which require little or no feeling on our part and often only make matters worse for the person with the need. Some make a practice of raising some comparative personal experience which is always ‘so much worse than’ and superimposes on the need before them not to support or encourage, but to dismiss it as essentially irrelevant. 

Clearly our responses to other people’s joy and sorrow must be more than superficial conventions, evasions or dismissive, unfeeling mannerisms. I am sure at times we mean well and are only trying to help that person to ‘get over’ their difficulty, but the sincerity of our help would carry much further if we first genuinely ‘wept’ with them, by feeling a bit of what they feel and shared their pain.

As Christians we should be willing practitioners of expressing in the right manner, at the right time and to the right people, the kind of supportive emotions that can enrich both the giver and receiver of them. Yet the fact that we need to be exhorted in scripture and reminded to be genuine participants in other’s rejoicing and weeping, is sufficient to show that for the most, the altruistic response doesn’t come to us naturally!

Being emphatically empathetic, ardently attentive and intrinsically involved with someone else’s need instead of our own doesn’t happen by chance! It takes practice and lots of it! Essentially we are directed here to be givers more so than takers and this is contrary to our generally selfish nature. The sense of patience with someone else, the putting of all else on hold to really listen, and the ability to share in the reality of another’s joys or sorrows in a godly and proper way, is an art and necessity minimised, uncherished and bypassed in the rush and noise of our modern lifestyles. However the aptitude to truly give at this level is a defining feature of our humanity, a test of the quality of our Christianity and a fulfilment of the Lord’s commands to give and to love.

Some of the greatest messages we may communicate in our lives will not be words but caring deeds. Some of the greatest ways we may impact others may be slowing down to another person’s pace or go to their level and meet them there. Some of the most significant legacies we may leave behind may be the memories of the kindness and compassionate response we gave when we gladly rejoiced in someone’s joy and openly, unashamedly felt for and wept with someone in their distress. 



See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Pray!

 “Is any among you afflicted? let him pray……” James 5:13

Believers are well acquainted with affliction and suffering. Becoming a Christian does not prevent us from being exposed to the same difficulties and trials which overall plague the human race. It is not in the avoidance or evasion of distress but in the manner of coping and dealing with it, that the saint of God has an edge and real means of surviving the anguish, sorrow and grief that life can bring. One of the weapons of an overcoming Christian life is prayer.

Prayer is the correct positioning of all flesh before God. It ought to be the most natural and obvious choice at all times and in all seasons of life, but particularly so when we are faced with difficulty. The Word of God directs those who believe, to pray when they are faced with the afflictions of life. This is not to say that we should pray only in the tough times of life, but that they are the times when our response should definitely be prayer! The reasons for this are many.

Prayer is the conduit that brings to us mere mortals, the power and blessing of the eternal and almighty God. It is the channel of communication with He Who is greater than us and can do all the things that are outside our control and ability. Afflictions, sufferings and infirmities remind us of how vulnerable and weak we really are. They help us remeasure and redefine in practical terms, our ever present need for God! They are also opportunities for us to build a stronger relationship with the Lord by leaning more heavily on Him and trusting Him beyond where we may have trusted before.

The more frequently we respond to life’s challenges with prayer, the more adept we become to pray, knowing consciously and from our life’s history how that prayer has aided us in connecting with the Lord and in receiving what we have needed in various trying or desperate circumstances. Taking the time to pray teaches us that prayer works and that, as James tells us in v16 of this same chapter, if it is the fervent and effectual prayer of a righteous person - it avails, benefits, profits and rewards a great deal! The testimony of millions, who have verified that there is power in prayer and amazing, unequalled benefits in all circumstances and conditions of life, is overwhelming as it is inspiring.

With this knowledge and evidence both from God’s Word and from the lives of those who in obedience have practiced the principles of prayer to secure its helps and rewards, we must ask ourselves why we don’t pray more!? In fact it would be very pertinent to analyse our heart and life dealings, to see whether prayer is the course of action we choose to take at all. Is it our first option in finding solutions to the woes of life? Do we resort to this Royal telephone line for input from God, ahead of relying on ourselves or seeking the opinion and assistance of others? If we do pray, do we so in faith and trust that God is able and available to answer us?

The prayer experience is sometimes reduced to just saying or repeating prayers in rote fashion, merely fulfilling a duty or ritual, but this is not true praying as the bible describes. The imperative of prayer in scripture, is evidence of God’s command that we perform this holy exercise and that we do so from the heart and soul not simply the lips. How deeply rewarding and satisfying it is to man, when in faith real prayer is made to the Almighty God! How great a deliverance we find and receive from the troubles and afflictions of life, at the hand of the loving Saviour! Jesus is looking for opportunities to provide rest, relief and blessing in all our difficulties of life, if only we would choose to make sincere prayer our first response and not our last resort!



See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Stormy Weather

"The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him." Nahum 1:7

The strong wind was bending the trees like a giant merciless hand. Through the window, I could see the yard grounds bloated with the rains that had been soaking into it, almost non-stop for days. The image before me was dim, cold and uninviting. I was glad to be indoors, sheltered in the relative comfort of the dry, warm and familiar surrounds of my home. Somewhere on the news were reports of storms hitting elsewhere, leaving some homes with damaged roofs while flash floods were impairing travel and generally making life difficult. Stormy weather!   

We all face the stormy weather of life. There are times when the gusty winds of life’s difficulties push us to the limit and the torrential rains of sorrow soak our heart and soul. Life’s storms do not exonerate anyone. They have no regard to age, and they do not select on any criteria whether it be education, culture, status or descent. We console one another with this general and vague knowledge that after all ‘everyone faces difficulties’ and that ‘life is meant to try us’. Some well-meaning comforter reminds us that ‘there is always someone worse off than we’, but somehow that doesn't really help us in our present struggle. Our best preparation, bravest courage and noblest mental attitude do little to shelter us from the blows and unforeseen challenges and trials that like those un-tethered winds, can buffet us, plague us and push us around.

Some of the troubled days we face, are of our own making, the result of poor judgement, disobedience or plain stupidity when we knowingly select to do or participate in those things that we know will expose us to distress and potentially harm us! Other times of trouble just seem to land at our door step, unsolicited by our choices and like a vexing blowfly, fly into our space clearly unwanted. These seasons of difficulty are very real and threatening as they absorb our time, mind, emotional strength and physical energy. They make us feel like we are walking up a downward escalator, for each step we take we seem to go backwards two. The unrelenting currents of trial push at us and would flush us downstream, requiring that we strain every mental and emotional sinew in our being, in an effort to stay on top.

Drained, floundering, and often feeling alone and wasted in our stressful experiences of life’s storms, we sometimes wonder how we can make it through and if there can ever be hope for a brighter, better tomorrow. We long to hide from the troubles that face us and long for shelter, reprieve and an end or at least a pause, in the struggle against the unseen forces that taunt us. Who truly understands? Where is refuge? Does anyone care?

To those who trust in the Lord it soon becomes clear that God is our only refuge. He is the strong place and high tower that can protect us in, and lift us above our troubles. He is the One who cares and can help us withstand the onslaught of life's turmoil. God is still God in times of crisis, and in the demanding, confusing times.  Knowing, loving and trusting Jesus is our strength and security at all times but particularly in the tough and challenging seasons of life. 

What's more the Lord knows those that trust Him this way and in such difficult situations! That speaks of a care and personal attention that is given by our loving God to those who in the midst of life's storms, when the billows of the oceans of trial toss and threaten, look to Him for strength, comfort and overcoming. Instead of relying on their own limited strength or the temporal camouflage of things or substances in futile attempts to survive, those trusting God know they can lean on Him, that He knows them and cares and that He is the answer! 



See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Repetitive Reminder

"O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever." Psalm 136:1-3

The Psalm is a call to all who love the Lord and know the truth, beauty and power of His mercy to present worship, praise and honour to God.

He provides unending benefits and His mercy is an everlasting flow toward us. In turn, we ought to find a constant stream of thanks issuing from our soul, heart, mind and lips!

Our praise and thanks unto the Lord is an apt and joyful spiritual sacrifice firstly for the fact of ‘What’ He is!

He is good! He is perfect in goodness even as he is just in severity. In the same way that God is love and doesn’t merely ‘have’ love, He is good in the ultimate and completely perfect sense of the word. All of His acts, motives and principles reflect this quality and attribute. We benefit from this good and merciful God in so many ways that it is impossible for us to name or count them all! We may experience some goodness as we relate to each other in this human world and at times are surprised to find someone who shows us kindness or goodness,  expecting most of the time quite the opposite. This is not so with the Lord whose goodness is not merely a part or portion of His character, but who is actual goodness and love itself in all His dealings with us. From Him, if we come in humility, we can be sure to find goodness and this should bring out the most heartfelt gratitude and praise from our souls.

Secondly for the fact of ‘Who’ He is!

He is the God of gods and the Lord of lords! Idols and man-made gods are mere figments and fantasies, but if there could exist any creature or power worthy to be deemed a ‘god’, then Jesus would be the GOD of them! He is the supreme power there is no-one higher and no-one beside Him or equal to Him! As the ultimate and superlative Deity, He cannot be mistaken, misplaced or displaced. He doesn’t have to vie for position or prove His worth, for when all that exalts itself has come and gone He will remain and continue eternally! He is what the sun is to a candle, the ocean to a raindrop, the universe to a star!

Humanity has known many lords, kings and sovereigns of all kinds, reputations and influence, but of the best among them, none can even begin to compare to the One true and ultimate LORD! He is the potentate above all and when the lights go out on the last human ruler and the door closes on the last realm, this King of kings and Lord of lords will continue eternally in the reign which He has established and has existed forever.  

Thirdly for the fact of 'what' He does!

It is with these thoughts in mind that the Psalmist repeatedly encourages us to note and remember His mercy which endureth forever. Our great God 'does' great mercy toward us! Mercy is the motive and manner of His giving to us His creation. 

Everlasting mercy can only come from an everlasting God and such ever-present, enduring, persisting and sturdy mercy, merits our highest praise and thanks! This One who is Judge overall and will endure eternally is not limited in mercy as we are. He doesn’t run out or short, He determines the extent of His longsuffering love and does not measure as we mortals do. 

The evidence of His dealings with man over the past millennia shows a mercy, which in human terms really is not only ‘unending’, but also unparalleled, unsurpassed, unexcelled, unmatched and unequalled! We owe Him gratitude, honour and praise with every breath we take. Amen.



See also:
http://dailybiblefocus.blogspot.com.au/
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion