God Is Always At Work

“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” John 5:17

There is not a time of the day or night that God is not at work to love us. An hour does not pass without Jesus doing His work of redemption. Not a second goes by without the Spirit working in our hearts. This truth is one we often forget. We work so hard to try to plan, manage, and control our life, and sometimes it works and other times it certainly doesn’t. The world around us is telling us to take complete control of our life and put the work in to get what we want. It is a trap that so many of us fall into, I know I have over and over again.

Over the past month I have been so blessed to see how all the work I have done, was doing, and planned to do was actually being taken care of by God. For the past month I was so worried about the life of the youth ministry and my own life as my family prepared to make a big transition from MPC. I tried to work hard to get everything to a place that I felt was healthy and good. I continually felt like I just couldn’t do enough and that to get everything to the place I wanted I would need much more time and effort. However, I was not able to have that time, things were moving faster then I anticipated. I was forced back to the foot of the cross in prayer. I had to lay down the feeling that I had to be the one to prepare everything perfectly. I was anxious and scared to give it all up, but I had been broken down and knew it was not in my power to accomplish all the work I thought needed to be done. I simply prayed, “God go before me and do the work I can’t.”

As so often happens, God easily stepped in and did the work better then I ever imagined. The responses I have had from people when I told them I was going to be moving on from MPC was truly humbling and often moved me to tears. The love and encouragement I have received from everyone has been overwhelming. It would be easy to be angry, upset, or scared with a transition like this. However, the peace, love, and grace that has permeated this process is certainly form God. The ways He has also worked things out so that the programming, administration, and especially the teens are taken care of is also a sign of His work. Long before I knew about this next step in the life of my family God was at work preparing the hearts and minds of people so that everything and everyone would be taken care of.

Even when we can’t see it, and long before we know we need it the Triune God is at work. I am more confident of this truth than ever before. We are so often fooled into thinking we can do all the work that needs to be done. We end up weary, anxious, and confused. In those times we should go to the words of Christ, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). God has done, is doing, and will do the heavy lifting, the hard work, the impossible work. It is my prayer for all of you that you continue to do the work Christ has called us to, but with the knowledge that God is always at work doing the things only He can do. God is always at work because He loves us.

Jacob Bancroft.