July 24, 2013 … Meaning In Our Labor

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 205

Devotional Song: Go to this link   … Today I hope any readers will use this link and hear a song sung by Steve Green, singing “ Find Us Faithful”, calling all Christians to lives of faithful service.

Highlight Passage of the Day: Isaiah 49: 1-4 [Our work is never in vain when it is done to honor our God.] … [NLT] …  
1 Listen to me, all of you in far-off lands! The LORD called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name. 2He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver. 3 He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.” 4 I replied, “But my work all seems so useless! I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose at all. Yet I leave it all in the LORD’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.” 
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Contextual Study involving today’s passage found in Isaiah, Chapter 49 … Go to this link … 
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Reference Passage of the Day #1: 1st Thessalonians 5: 23-24 [God will always be faithful to honor His faithful servants.] … [NLT] …  
23 Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until that day when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. 24God, Who calls you, is faithful; … He will do this.

Reference Passage of the Day #2: 1st Corinthians 15: 58 [Any work for God is never in vain.] … [NLT] …  
58 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. 

Reference Passage of the Day #3: Hebrews 11: 6 [God’s reward is always there for the faithful.] … [NLT] …  
6 And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.

My Journal for Today: Have you ever been at a place in your life when you felt that all that you’re doing in life is worthless or fruitless? Well, yesterday in my devotional entry I wrote about Jonah becoming so despondent in his calling that he prayed for God to take his life; and we know that Moses became battle weary as he led God’s grumbling people in the wilderness. And there was Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet,” who wrote the book of Lamentations, seeing the destruction of Jerusalem when God’s people rejected his prophesies. And finally one of my favorite Prophets in the Old Testament, Habakkuk, came to God with doubts and confusion and feelings of despondency when he saw Gods’ people being so disobedient and rebellious in the face of Gods’ law.

Yes, … these were great and called servants of God; and they had their times when they felt worthless and even wanted to give up in the face of life as they saw it in their times. Ever felt like that? … I know I have, being called to help Christians walk free from habitual sexual sin; and I look around and see the proliferation of a culture becoming more and more hypersexualized. And I see men, who claim Christ as their Lord, being felled – right and left – by Satan’s deception and His XXX world of confusion and fleshly pleasure. I look out there and feel like I’ve been called to drain the ocean with a tea cup. Yes, … God’s calling can be disheartening at times, … can’t it?

But then I remember all that the Apostles John and Peter and Paul went through in their lives; and I recall Scriptures written by all of them, many of which I’ve memorized and bubble to the surface of my consciousness here this morning; … and I’m encouraged. I’ve quoted some of Paul’s uplifting thoughts above if you – like me – look around and wonder if anything you’re doing in God’s Name is really worthwhile. And don’t you just love that song, sung by Steve Green, to which I’ve linked any reader above, to encourage us to remain faithful to the calling on our lives by God.

If you’re reading along with me here today, take time to take in Steve Green’s song as well as those passages which I was led to study and copy above. And as the Apostle Paul wrote in 1st Cor. 15: 58, “… know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”

My Prayer for Today … Lord, thank You for lifting me up with encouragement from Your own word today, showing me how working faithfully for Your kingdom is always fruitful. … Amen