Works: Purpose: Prayers and Poetry

                                               

                                               Works

                                                To will

                                                to work

                                                for His good pleasure

                                                not often recognized.

                                                Too often

                                                too much

                                                we choose the opposite

                                                follow man’s advice.

                                                To succeed

                                                to accomplish

                                                forget His way is opposite

                                                heart to heart instead.

Psalm 18:21, “ For I have kept the ways of the Lord, And have not wickedly departed from my God.”

Works: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

            Works

           

            When truth becomes

            platitudes we

           

            wander away from caring

            existing without heart

            works deaden our soul

            actions degrade.

            

            Wake up to life

            “obey and repent” the call

            white robes still a hope

            conquer to be clothed

            with Spirit and grace.

Reflection Sardis: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Have you experienced a time when fatigue became indifference?

2.     What signs of passivity towards a ‘work’ suggest a need to re-charge, or that it’s time to move away before detachment sets in?

3.     How can we help each other stay accountable to commitments with a caring heart instead of obligation alone?

Share: What ‘work’ feels too heavy for you right now?

Sardis: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Revelation 3:1-6

“Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.”

Heart—compassion—pure motives fuel the works the Lord sparks within our church communities and our own ministry outreach. Our souls sing even at the end of an exhausting undertaking that depletes all our resources.

Unless, somewhere along the way, the tiredness endures and our actions become rote. What then? Take stock our scripture says—take notice before apathy and passivity turn into uselessness. Maybe not on the surface apparent to the world, but as a weak link heart to heart. When our care begins to harden into resentment or contempt or objectivity.

“Remember then what you received and heard; obey it, and repent.”

Remember that if God gives the work He will also supply His resources. He will cover each if us with His power and grace to bear the hardest tasks. If that is where He assigned.

Unfortunately too often we think we know what we’re doing on our own and don’t even realize we are working on our own steam until the signs of failure sneak into our attitudes and actions compromising our discernment.

We can only conquer in His strength.

Thank you Lord that you search us and know us. Keep us listening to Your counsel to discern Your guidance in all stages of works.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 27: 14

“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage;

wait for the Lord!”

Faith Seeds: Prayers and Poetry

Genesis 8:15-15, “Then God said to Noah, ‘Go out of the ark…so that they may abound on the earth and be fruitful and multiply.’ So Noah went out with….”

As we read and share the story of Noah, we often stop there in complete amazement. And yet there is more. We often stop short of Your purposes, Lord. Or I do. I sometimes reach a point, an experience that is so amazing that I stop and stay.

Yet, You do not always call us to one plan, or one purpose only. Sometimes there is another stepping-stone to take. Perhaps not for ourselves, but maybe for another, that together we might be fruitful and multiply. Despite the long years of building the ark, Noah’s work did not end there; perhaps it only began there.

And if our destination is eternity, then we really do not have an end, a stopping point. We are to be ready to follow, to take new adventures, to accept new responsibilities each day.

Please help us to recognize and complete the task You assign, and then be willing and prepared to be moved onward to the next. May it be more important to stay the course with You than to linger with satisfaction short of Your intent.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 111:7-8

“The work of His hands are truth and justice; all His precepts are sure.

They are upheld forever and ever; they are performed in truth and uprightness.”

Kingdom Manna

Tasks

Matthew 7:26, “And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.”

At first they remembered to move above the water line—that uneven pattern that separated the white section from damp hard-pressed sand. The wide section indented with tracks—birds—dogs—people—tires.

Walking back and forth with dripping buckets, they slowly built their castle. Complete with moats and ramparts, towers and archways. A masterpiece of creativity and co-operation.

Attentive now fully to details they didn’t see the encroaching water. Little lips of foam nipping at the walls. So absorbed they didn’t hear the roar of waves drawing nearer.

Wails. “Not yet-we’re not finished!” Frantic efforts to hold back the rushing water. Stop the tide. Earlier a joy—now a menace. Washing away all their efforts.

Absorbed in my own labors I also forget Your counsel Lord. That I need to look to Your ways first. Follow Your design. Only then can I be sure of success—of work that will last. Otherwise I too will sit and weep.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 28:5

Because they do not regard the works of the Lord,

Nor the deeds of his hands,

He will tear them down and not build them up.