Thinx 63: A Devotional

(These are the notes of the devotional given at the monthly meeting of a para-church organisation. More words than these were said, but these are the only ones that were recorded.)

When I determined to load up on wisdom and examine everything taking place on earth, I realized that if you keep your eyes open day and night without even blinking, you'll still never figure out the meaning of what God is doing on this earth. Search as hard as you like, you're not going to make sense of it. No matter how smart you are, you won't get to the bottom of it.
--- Ecclesiastes 8:16-17 (The Message)

We can never see the full picture. Mind you, there's no harm in taking the time to develop an appreciation of even a small part of it. We should try to find out what God has been doing, because

There is comfort and encouragement in being reminded of God’s provision.

We find cause for praise and thanksgiving.

We find reasons to pray and to act, and through those actions become part of what we see him doing.
We see God working, just as Jesus said.

Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him. So he told them, "My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

So Jesus answered them, "I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. Furthermore, the Father does not judge anyone, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him."
--- John 5:16-23

And we have the privilege of working with God. Jesus did the things he saw his father doing; we do the things we see Jesus doing – not acting on our own initiative but as prompted by God through his Holy Spirit. We honour the Father by honouring the Son. We honour him through our faithfulness toward him in all aspect of our lives – including through prayer and good works.

I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
--- John 14:12-14

So we must not grow weary in doing good, for in due time we will reap, if we do not give up.
--- Galatians 6:9

© Copyright Bruce M. Axtens, 2008