the foolishness we find
June 22, 2009
Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted (v.1).
READ: Psalm 127:1-2
I’m not into Christian T-shirts, but I recently saw one I’d like to own. Walking downtown in our city, I passed an elderly man with this caption across his chest:
Step back and let Jesus do what He do.
Bad grammar aside, that’s a pretty good thought. All the evil and sadness and poverty and darkness in our world ought to compel us to haul ourselves off our comfy couches and do something about it. As one writer put it, “Jesus rose from the dead; and we’ve got work to do.”
However, the psalmist, along with the steady theme of the whole of Scripture, cautions us against ever thinking that we are the central cause or effect in any of our efforts. God’s engagement with the world is not swinging on a thin thread, barely hanging on in anxious hope for us humans to show up.
All our exertion and skill and expertise fall fallow without God’s intervention. “Unless the Lord protects a city,” the psalmist writes, “guarding it with sentries will do no good” (127:1). In fact, “it is useless for [us] to work so hard from early morning until late at night” (v.2) because frantic activity ignores the truth that we are dependent on God’s kindness and mercy.
Oblivious to this truth, we toil and worry and sweat. We plan and manipulate and fret. We seldom rest. We rarely pray. And as a result, we find ourselves in the foolish place of living as though we are God.
This is no argument for a flaccid life, for living drowsy or inert. Rather, this is a call to be engaged with God’s redemptive work in the world—remembering always that it is His work in the world.
Tyler Wigg Stevenson put it well: “The world is not mine to save, but I can serve the mission of the God who has already done so.” —Winn Collier
Why might you resist trusting in God’s power and work? How would you experience your world differently if you stepped back and trusted God’s work in and around you?
Tweet This
Share on Facebook
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it
RSS FeedRelated
ODJ: letting go
February 14, 2011 If you love your father or mother more than you love Me, you are not worthy of being Mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than Me, you are not worthy of being Mine (v.37). READ: Matthew 10:32-42 Li Yue fell hard for Hou You Jing. They were from the [...]
ODJ: plan B
December 19, 2011 I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now (v.13). READ: Romans 1:8-17 As a fisherman on one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes, I’ve had to change my plans on many occasions. Stormy weather or high waves have [...]
ODJ: batting 1.000
June 14, 2011 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong (v.21). READ: Romans 7:6-25 Baseball determines a player’s batting average by dividing his total number of hits by the number of times he’s batted. If a player hits the ball every time [...]
ODJ: who cares?
August 21, 2009 Should people cheat God? Yet you have cheated Me! (3:8). READ: Malachi 1:6-14 The book of Malachi was written around 420 BC as a warning to the nation of Israel. God accused the priests of offering “defiled” sacrifices (Malachi 1:7). Specifically, He was concerned with the nation’s direct disobedience in not giving Him [...]
Christian Courses
Day Of Discovery
Discover The Word
Discovery Series
Help For My Life
My Utmost For His Highest
Our Daily Bread
Our Daily Journey
RBC Ministries
WarungSateKaMu
Manasociety
雅米
are you consoling yourself or covering your guilt?
Hi Passerby,
The amazing truth is that God’s power and work does both. It consoles us not in the manner of an empty promise or a deluded sense of positive thinking. But God is really working in and around us—this is a fact which if anyone would put their faith in it would most certainly experience its realness.
And as we uncover our guilt before God, God works to “cover” our guilt. For we read in 1 John1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
Amazing, isn’t it?