Daily Devotionals

Truths to Live By - One Day at a Time

Devotional: August 26th

“Establish thou the work of our hands upon us.”

The margin of the New American Standard Bible reads “…give permanence to the work of our hands.” Now that is a thought worth pondering and a request worth praying! We should make it our ambition to spend our lives doing that which will last.

This finds an echo in the New Testament when the Lord Jesus said, “I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain”.

F. W. Boreham said that each of us should provide himself with some honorable occupation that he can do while his body is lying in the grave. But we should advance the thought beyond the grave and say that each of us should be building for eternity.

So much of modern activity is of transient importance and of fleeting value. The other day I heard of a man who was devoting his life to a chemical analysis of fifty volatile chemicals in the skin of a Bartlett pear. Even Christians can fall into the trap of building castles in the sand, of chasing bubbles, and of becoming experts in trivia. As someone has said, we can be guilty of spending our lives straightening pictures in a burning house.

There are many types of work that are of eternal significance, and we should concentrate on these. First is the development of Christian character. Our character is one of the few things we will take to heaven. It needs cultivating now.

Souls won to Christ are of abiding importance. They will be worshipers of the Lamb of God forever and ever.

Those who teach the Word of Truth, who disciple young believers, who feed the sheep of Christ are making a deposit in lives that will last indefinitely.

Parents who raise their sons and daughters for the service of the Kingdom are assured that their work will endure.

Faithful stewards who invest their money for Christ and His cause are engaged in a ministry that cannot fail.

Those who devote themselves to the work of prayer will see some day how every prayer was answered in God’s own time and way.

Anyone who serves God’s people is engaged in a work for eternity. The humblest servant of Christ has superior vision to the wisest men of the world. His work will last while theirs will go up in a mushroom cloud.