The Fruit of our Works
A farmer and his family worked for days to clear their land of dried shrubs, twigs, and hay. They gathered them together in one big heap. Then for the next few cold months they sat each evening around a fire made from some material from the pile, and roasted marshmallows, and shared stories with each other.
Some aimless persons went into the woods and also gathered dry branches together into a heap. They set them alight and run off. The bonfire burnt out of control devastating many nearby farmlands and homes. Two similar works, but with very dissimilar results. The first was purposeful and yielded a positive result. The other, purposeless, ended in a disaster.
The Bible tells us it is God who is at work in us to be willing and active to do that which accomplishes His purposes. ‘For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.’ (Phil 2:13) Whatever pleases God is good, and if He’s therefore working His pleasure in us, we know that whatever we do according to His will, will yield good results. We will never have to be ashamed or to regret what we do- God is pleased.
There must therefore be a willingness on our part to allow Him to work in us and through us. We must yield our lives to Him so that He can work with us.
The whole of God’s human creatures are running to and from, doing one thing or another. The question is, what portion of our ‘achievements’ would stand the test of time? The answer will be in the purpose for which we have made all the effort. Was it just to please ourselves, or to accomplish something for God’s glory and praise. The apostle Paul warns that all our deeds will be tested with fire. Some will be purified in the process, while others will be burned up and the workers would have suffered loss.
May we pray that whatever we do on this earth may have a divine purpose, for God’s glory, while we and those around us may be blessed as a result.
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