Prodigal:  It is a hot day today but the fields will not plow themselves and I have to get this done before it gets dark.

 

Me:  Much of what we do everyday is work and sometimes it can discourage us.

 

Prodigal:  Yeah, I felt discouraged this morning.

 

Me:  Let me share with you somethings that God says about our work.

 

Chuck Swindoll shares this in his book Start Where You Are.

 

Someone once counted every biblical promise and came up with an amazing figure of almost 7,500.  Servants can claim many of those promises even today.  Believe me, there are times when the only thing that keeps me going is a promise from God that my work is not in vain.

When we have done what was needed but were ignored, misunderstood, or forgotten, we can be sure our labor was not in vain.

When we did what was right, with the right motive, but received no credit, no acknowledgment, not even a “thank you”…we have God’s promise that “we shall reap.”

When any servant has served and given and sacrificed and then willingly stepped aside for God to receive glory, our heavenly Father promises he will “receive back.”

Among our temporal rewards is the quiet awareness that the life of Christ is being modeled.  I know of few more satisfying and encouraging rewards than to realize that our actions can become visible expressions of Christ to others.

 

Someone is not asking you about Christ.  They are watching you to learn who Christ is.  This is not too pressure you but to remind you that what you are doing does matter.  What you are doing does show Christ to others.  Keep at the work and you shall reap!

 

1 John 3:21-22

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

 

Jennifer Van Allen,

 

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org