(no subject)
Hello everyone,
Can I tell you how good God is? Just a day after last week’s email, my mood and outlook on current situations flipped completely around and the only one that I can think of crediting for that is God. There are still some struggles, but my perspective has been bettered somehow. So praise be to God.
Moving forward, there was something I had been reading in Scripture this morning that caught my interest. It was something I’d read over a few times before and it didn’t particularly stand out to me, but today it hooked my attention. At the very end of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul expounds upon the importance of Christ having died and resurrected; directly afterward he writes, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:58) The Corinthian believers probably struggled with doubt and persecution just as anyone else in the early Church, amid the other questions and issues they were having that caused Paul to write his first letter to them.
I think what sticks out to me most in this verse is that the Corinthians (and ourselves) are told to “always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” While I admittedly do not know what the work is specifically, I would imagine that it is not completely set apart from when we are asked to be “living sacrifices” in Romans (Rom 12:1,2). This and the verse in 1 Corinthians are said in such a way that would lead one to believe this is meant to be a constant motion of giving ourselves to God. Dying to self and living unto God. ‘Working’ towards the Kingdom of God yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Following Christ through thick and through thin because it is an endeavor that is not in vain; it is not worthless, pointless, or arbitrary to believe in and follow Jesus… despite what many things around us may want to tell us. Despite our temptations and thoughts to just say that it’s not all that important to talk to God every day.
Now, this wholly-giving/living to God thing isn’t easy. If it were easy, we wouldn’t necessarily have to be told or reminded to do it. We would just do it. It isn’t easy to give myself fully to the work of the Lord, because although I know it may not be in vain, I tire quickly. But I must also remind myself that my labor in the Lord is not in vain. Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. If I come to think of it, there really isn’t a grade system for how good our work in the Lord is; so how could even the smallest thing that we do for the Lord (as opposed to ourselves or to please other people) be in vain? “… Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31) If matters of eating and drinking can be done to the glory of God - and therefore, not done in vain - how much more anything else we do for the purpose of wanting God glorified!
Perhaps I’m beginning to tangent. How exciting and challenging it is to think about where I fall short and where I would want to encourage all of us to live wholly for Christ and to give ourselves fully to His work! But I digress… and pray that each of us would learn these things and hold them close to our hearts… that the Lord would teach us through His Spirit to love Him wholly. I pray that we would also be people who desire to work for the Lord - be we pastors, missionaries, artists, business-people, teachers, or whatever we may be. May we all do our own work for the glory of the Lord.
In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne
Can I tell you how good God is? Just a day after last week’s email, my mood and outlook on current situations flipped completely around and the only one that I can think of crediting for that is God. There are still some struggles, but my perspective has been bettered somehow. So praise be to God.
Moving forward, there was something I had been reading in Scripture this morning that caught my interest. It was something I’d read over a few times before and it didn’t particularly stand out to me, but today it hooked my attention. At the very end of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul expounds upon the importance of Christ having died and resurrected; directly afterward he writes, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:58) The Corinthian believers probably struggled with doubt and persecution just as anyone else in the early Church, amid the other questions and issues they were having that caused Paul to write his first letter to them.
I think what sticks out to me most in this verse is that the Corinthians (and ourselves) are told to “always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” While I admittedly do not know what the work is specifically, I would imagine that it is not completely set apart from when we are asked to be “living sacrifices” in Romans (Rom 12:1,2). This and the verse in 1 Corinthians are said in such a way that would lead one to believe this is meant to be a constant motion of giving ourselves to God. Dying to self and living unto God. ‘Working’ towards the Kingdom of God yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Following Christ through thick and through thin because it is an endeavor that is not in vain; it is not worthless, pointless, or arbitrary to believe in and follow Jesus… despite what many things around us may want to tell us. Despite our temptations and thoughts to just say that it’s not all that important to talk to God every day.
Now, this wholly-giving/living to God thing isn’t easy. If it were easy, we wouldn’t necessarily have to be told or reminded to do it. We would just do it. It isn’t easy to give myself fully to the work of the Lord, because although I know it may not be in vain, I tire quickly. But I must also remind myself that my labor in the Lord is not in vain. Your labor in the Lord is not in vain. If I come to think of it, there really isn’t a grade system for how good our work in the Lord is; so how could even the smallest thing that we do for the Lord (as opposed to ourselves or to please other people) be in vain? “… Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor 10:31) If matters of eating and drinking can be done to the glory of God - and therefore, not done in vain - how much more anything else we do for the purpose of wanting God glorified!
Perhaps I’m beginning to tangent. How exciting and challenging it is to think about where I fall short and where I would want to encourage all of us to live wholly for Christ and to give ourselves fully to His work! But I digress… and pray that each of us would learn these things and hold them close to our hearts… that the Lord would teach us through His Spirit to love Him wholly. I pray that we would also be people who desire to work for the Lord - be we pastors, missionaries, artists, business-people, teachers, or whatever we may be. May we all do our own work for the glory of the Lord.
In love and in Him,
Your sister,
Yvonne