God blesses as we partner with Him. Deuteronomy 28v12 says, “The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands.” The rain is of limited use unless there is also the work of the hands. Jesus says, “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me: night is coming when no one can work.” John 9v4. Jesus is instructing his disciples (and himself) to work – that is to do the work which God calls us to do. The point is this – as we labour at what God gives us to do, he brings blessing. Sometimes, by his grace, he lands a blessing on our lap while we sit there, but the norm is for God, by his grace, to bless us as we do his work.

Often times, the work can seem hard and difficult, but if it is what God has called us to do, then we can expect good fruit in the end. The “passion week” for Jesus must have seemed long and hard as he moved towards the cross and to death at the hands of the soldiers – but it was the work God had called him to do. The result was phenomenal fruitfulness.

God has called us to be witnesses in the world. There are many ways in which we can do this, and whatever the way, it requires faith that God will work, but it will often also require our hard work. God brought about life through Jesus’ work of dying. Or as the Isaiah 40v31 says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will rise up on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

With love and blessing,

Roland