Immortal Till Your Work is Done
Friends, how much confidence can you have that your daily difficulties are in God’s hands?
A lot. The promises of God to us give us great confidence.
“Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
If you are walking with Jesus, you can have confidence that the almighty power of the Creator God is working for your good.
John Paton was a missionary in the South Pacific in 1860. He lived on a small island full of violence, and faced constant threats to his life from native people who either disliked his religion, or who coveted his supplies.
Here’s how he felt one day when a native man followed him around with a loaded musket all day:
“I spoke kindly to him, and attended to my work as if he had not been there, fully persuaded that my God had placed me there, and would protect me till my allotted task was finished. Looking up in unceasing prayer to our dear Lord Jesus, I left all in his hands, and felt immortal till my work was done.”
“Felt immortal till my work was done.” Can we say that today? I don’t mean making unwise decisions for your health and safety and saying, “Well, I’m immortal…”
No, but Paton views his life as belonging to King Jesus, and Jesus has appointed a certain amount of service before Paton is called to leave this life. And if we follow Jesus, we are in the exact same position.
We ought to view our lives as an “allotted task” from Jesus, as “our work” from him. But instead, we view our lives as our own, and settle for lesser goals, lesser tasks, and lesser delights.
The unbounded promises of our heavenly Father in Christ, when contrasted with our grumbling, complaining, and just plain ignoring God—remind us of our need to confess our sins…
Prayer of Confession
O Lord, Paul tells the Ephesians that he does not account his life of any value nor as precious to himself, if only he may finish his course…to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
But we so often consider our lives, our comfort, our time, our sense of being well-liked, as very valuable and as very precious to ourselves. Open up for us, Lord, where we have not surrendered all to you, in what areas of life we do not consider ourselves crucified with Christ… so that we can say that we no longer live, but that Christ lives in us.
Lord, we often doubt that you are at work in our inconvenience, and in our suffering. We doubt that you are really leading us when we face mundane challenges.
And so we ask, reveal our weaknesses. And grant us greater faith in your promises.
Even as you open our hearts to other sins and other forms of conviction, forgive us, O God, according to your abundant mercy. And lead us in this time of silent confession…