My Food is His Work

One of the most difficult things about Christian service is knowing any effort has any reward.  This is a product of being a goal driven society.  We do work, we analyze the results, we change the way we work, we analyze the results, we change it some more, we analyze some more, etc … until we get the most efficient work that yields the most product.  We do this so every effort is maximized for the most gain.  Decisions are based on yield and its direct relationship to effort. 

Christian service and the work of the Church in general is not subject to this mode of thinking.  I find it incredibly difficult to get out of that worldly mind at times when trying to do the work set before me.  While many would say I shouldn’t bring that thinking into my Christian service, I believe they are wrong.  I believe I should do what I am called to do regardless of any outcome.  There may be no obvious yield.  I may never know if a single person in the world ever came to know Jesus or was helped in any obvious way.  It is irrelevant as my single responsibility is to answer the call upon my life.  Otherwise, I am disobedient.  This is a very different type of thinking.

Dr. David Jeremiah tells the story of standing at the edge of a lake in the darkest midnight and throwing a rock.  You hear the rock splash into the water, but you are unable to see the water.  Are there ripples in the water?  Your knowledge wants to tell you there are, but you can’t see them, so you don’t know for sure.  Likewise, our Christian service splashes and we will never know the extent of the ripples and how many lives are touched.

Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. – Ecclesiastes 11:1

We must be careful to put our heart in its proper place and our mind onto proper thinking in regard to our service.  We do not do it to know how many people are touched.  In fact, I believe it is dangerous for us to know these things as we are so very susceptible to pride and ego.  Jesus said in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”  His food, the substance of His life is to do the will, not see the results of His work.  Our source of substance to perform the Christian work we have been called to do is solely based upon God’s will for what work is to be accomplished.  It has absolutely nothing to do with results.

We may be doing a good work.  People may like it.  But if God is leading us to new work, we are disobedient if we stay where we are just because we think the results are good and other people like it.  This is how programs get established in a church and never change.  We become hard hearted because we think we know how best to serve God when we need a tender heart open to wherever and to do whatever He leads us to.

However, even the least of our efforts will be rewarded.  God will take any small part of willful obedience and bless it.