12 November 2013 - prophetically unprofitable

12 November 2013 - prophetically unprofitable

‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.’”

We are all called to work as servants in the fields of the kingdom and to help with the sheep in some capacity.  Even those of us that aren't called to be watch over the sheep as ordained ministers are still called to care for our brothers and sisters.  And this work can be tiring.  It draws on all we are and then some.  This is one reason such work can be so fulfilling.  But as laboring makes us tired we may mistakenly believe that we are doing the work under our own strength.  We may mistakenly believe that we are earning something which our master then owes us.  For example, those among us who are called to serve at the LORD's table cannot excuse themselves because they have been so busy tending to the sheep.  Whatever works to which the LORD calls us are a great privilege for us.  We have trouble seeing any kind of work as a privilege but it is exactly that.  The LORD himself works in the creation of the world.  He allows us in his mercy to assist in the world's renewal in Jesus Christ.  There is great dignity in this.  Even though we work it is fully his gift that we do so. 

Is he grateful to that servant because he did what was commanded?
So should it be with you.
Is he grateful for the gift he gives us?  Of course not.  We must be grateful to him.  We are his unprofitable servants.  Yet without earning anything we nevertheless receive great profit ourselves.

When we do grow tired we should remember that he does call us not only to share in his work but also to enter into his rest eventually. (cf. Heb. 4:10).  This is always his plan for us.  He shares his work and his rest with us not because we deserve them but because of the plan he has because of the unchanging love with which he loves us.

God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made them.
But by the envy of the Devil, death entered the world,
and they who are in his possession experience it.

The work we do (or rather that he does in us) purifies us.  We surrender ourselves as "sacrificial offerings" and are united to him.  We are "found worthy" of him as our true worth is revealed like "gold in the furnace".  We shine at the time of our visitation because he shines within us. We are united with him as he allows us to share in his work. Even though the fields and the sheep have made us tired we find that we do not collapse because our souls "are in the hand of God".  The world sees us working and assumes that we will collapse and that will be the end of the matter. They do not realize that after this momentary hardship we "shall abide with him in love" forever.

We must approach the LORD as little children.  We should have no sense of having earned anything by our merits.  Instead we look to our loving Father who gives us every good thing in his goodness.

When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.