John 4:36-38 (NASB) 36"Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37"For in this case the saying is true, 'One sows and another reaps.' 38"I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor."
We have opportunities to know God through Scripture, through prayer, through the person of Jesus, and through sacrifices and suffering. We also have the opportunity to know God through the work that we do. I am referring primarily to the job we do for a living, but the same truth applies to any work that involves the investment of our time, energies, and efforts.
Sometimes we can catch a clear glimpse of God at work. We can see His will triumph. We can see peace brought to conflict. We can see a life touched by love, power, and conviction. Yet sometimes God’s work is not obvious at all. How can we know God when we are more involved with computers than with people, when we work more with our minds and pencils than with a hands-on project, when we see no connection between the work we do and the work Jesus did?
All God asks us to do is surrender our little contributions to His will and then watch what He will do. We surrender our seeds of contributions by making God the reference point for the decisions we make and the actions we take. We develop sensitivity to the voice of God in our thoughts. We learn to discern God’s hand engineering the circumstances about us. We seek an obedient heart that knows when to take charge and when to let go and trust. We act in obedience in the face of doubt and often without any infallible word from the Lord.
All of this and more is involved in making the God we see in Jesus the reference point for the decisions we make and actions we take on the job to make our contribution. Who knows when someone might see the spirit of God in the way we carry out our work. Opportunity is everywhere for us to know God in our work and to share our seed of contribution. May God work in us that our eyes might be opened for us to see God’s work all about us and to see what small but significant contribution you and I can make.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope February 25, 1990
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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