God Works (Part One)

“For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things [healed a man] on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.’” (John 5:16, 17)

God works. He worked hard at the beginning of time, creating the world; He has worked just as hard throughout history, governing and guiding that same world; and He is still working today. He guides and controls everything, which, admittedly, is a big job, and it is a job for which He ought to receive a great amount of praise and glory. An even greater work performed by God, however, an even “harder” work, is the work of redemption, and it is for this work that God will be praised by His holy ones forever and ever and ever, world without end. Amen.

To draw things closer to home, however, the Bible says God is not just doing big-picture work like these things: He is also working on you—you personally. He created you, the way you are, with your own place in His world, your own history, your own personality, your own set of fingerprints that are unlike anyone else’s in the universe. He has governed over you, guided you, fed you, kept the air pumping in and out of you, protected you, healed you, educated you, and blessed you in a thousand other ways, every day of your life to this very moment. Exceeding all of that, however, is His work of your own personal salvation, which includes filling you personally with His own Holy Spirit.

We could go into more particulars—like the work He has accomplished for us through His holy prophets, the apostles, the work of Christ on the cross, the work of the Holy Spirit in converting the nations, and so forth. But I think this illustrates that God is a busy God—always working, always laboring, on behalf of the world, and on your own personal behalf as well.

If all of this is true, and it is, then there are two things that pop to the surface very quickly:

First, if we as Christians are to take God for our example, and we are—that is what it means to be godly, to be “like God”—then we cannot help but be workers, and hard workers. God is a creator, a maintainer, a feeder, a minister, a helper, a protector, a healer, a thinker, a communicator, an educator, a gardener, a beautifier, etc.; and God intends that each one of us be and do the very same: we are to enter into God’s work and mimic Him in the performing of it.

But the second thing that presents itself to us is the overwhelming sense of obligation and gratitude we at least should feel (even if we don’t). In other words, if the God of the universe has stooped to do so much for us, so much work and labor—if God has “taken pains,” so to speak—on our behalf, has done so much from which we both corporately and personally have benefited, we ought to feel as if we could never do enough ourselves to show Him our gratitude and to attempt at least to “pay Him back.” I know we can’t really, but, in a manner of speaking, we ought to feel how much we “owe” God and desire to give back to Him in appreciation.

“Great Father, we give You thanks this day for all the work You have done throughout all time—creating, sustaining, redeeming, rebuilding—and we give You thanks for the work You have done and continually do in our own personal lives as well. Make us like You, dear God, and like our Lord Jesus Christ—hard workers, working to bring You glory, working to fulfill Your will, working to serve others; teach us to be ever grateful for the work You have done on our behalf; and teach us to enjoy the work You have done and the work You have given us, we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.”