Daily Devotional: Monday, April 19
Speaker: Paul Diaz
Theme: Make Your Work Worth It
Weekend Music links on iTunes: Break My Heart by Mike Flathers; Yesterday, Today and Forever by Vicky Beeching; Your Name by Paul Baloche; Rescue by Desperation Band.
Nehemiah 4: 6-10; Nehemiah 6:15-16
Think: This week Paul continued the series “Your bucket list” and focused on work, ‘Does my work matter?’
Paul began by telling us that God created us to work and works Himself. As I sit here the noise of lawn mowers filters through the air as men around the neighborhood fight the ever-growing grass (and sadly moss too). On days like this when the sun is out in the Pacific North West so many people leave the indoors to tend to the garden cutting, weeding, trimming, digging… all following in the footsteps of Adam and doing what God has commissioned. In Genesis we see God creating the world and sending man out to work and take care of the Garden of Eden. Anyone who has done any gardening knows this is not always as much fun as harvesting fresh fruit or enjoying the flowers; first we have to put in effort and sweat. Poor Adam, all of Eden to maintain and yet God knew that it was good for him and us to work, to occupy our hands and our minds and help us focus. God knew it was good for us because He had done it himself in creating the world and continues to work on and with us in our lives. Unlike other areas of work in our lives gardening shows results fairly quickly and by the end of a day we can look at it and see it has made a difference and matters to the plants remaining.
In today’s passage we see Nehemiah commissioned by God to coordinate the men of Israel in working to rebuild the temple walls. Despite opposition and with the help of many men all working with all they had it was accomplished. They all had to be prepared to work and work hard but God blessed their labors knowing that the work was good for them and showed their strength as a people.
Do: Regardless of the weather today take a walk/drive around and look at the gardens that have received attention over the weekend. Take some time to appreciate the work that others do … including the barista’s who keep most people round here functioning!
Pray: Dear Father thank you for knowing me better than I know myself. For seeing into the heart of mankind and knowing that as reflections of you we also need to work and it is good for us. I ask that you would help me appreciate the work you have given me and others to do and help us work with all our hearts.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.
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