“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” - Col 3:23-24 (NIV).
Perhaps you have heard a saying that people forget so easily! It so happened to a friend of mine who after investing so much of his time and energy into building one mission school, the day he left, it was like good riddance. Almost all his working life he had been at this school making sure that it went up fine and cemented its place. So huge and consuming had been the task that often it came at being away from his family for long periods. But when it was time to leave the school was as if, “we can’t wait to see your back.”
A couple of years after his departure he stopped by to visit the school he had spent all his years building. To his shock and dismay almost no one could recognize him. The school had since moved on with new staff and projects. He left very low. “All the years I spent here and no one remembers me!” He shook his head.
In our verse today the Apostle Paul challenged the Christians in Colossians that when there are working they should put in all their effort, but as one serving not men but the Lord. Paul has a point here: human nature is fickle; we can fawn praise and say all the nice things while the person who matters is still around. But the day he disappears, many quickly move on to sing tune for the next person on the throne. Hence the Baganda say, "amogooma gavugila aliwo"- the day the King is off throne choruses of praise cease!
So, Paul reminds us that when it comes to working let us invest our effort as for the Lord. This is because God is not like us humans, quick to forget once we disappear off the radar. Rather, the Lord has for us a reward, as 2 Timothy 4:8 says: “in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”
Prayer for today: Lord Father God of Abraham, creator of heaven and earth, how pleasing it is to know that when I work it is as if I am serving you for while men so easily forget, you do remember, and have a reward for those that serve you in earnest, this I pray in Jesus’s name!
Related upcoming events
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19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
