As we prepare for the new year, and we begin to think about all of the New Year’s resolutions we want to put into place, how many of us have considered the plans that the Lord has for us?
We might be concerned about our health or our finances, maybe our family relationships or our happiness, but what about the work that God has for us to do.
What about the work the Lord has for us to do?
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” Eph 2:10 NASB
We are called to be laborers in His field, and the time for our rest has not come. Maybe we think that this is the time for us to just do what we want, and leave the Lord’s work to others, or leave it to a later point in life.
The Lord didn’t wait when the time had come for Him to take our sins on His body on the cross. Why should we wait when He has work for us to do now? Shouldn’t we be seeking His will that we might be at the task at hand?
The pleasure of the Lord, and to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant,” should be enough for us. For those who need more than pleasing the One who sacrificed everything for us, how about this:
“And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.’” Rev 14:13 NASB
His pleasure should be our goal…
Our deeds do follow us, but His pleasure should be our goal. There should be no need for anything else, but God offers more. When you get to heaven, what are the deeds that will follow you? What work is on your heavenly checklist that He has charged you with completing this year?
As a pastor of a multiethnic church, I know that one of His goals for me (and His church) is to see the body of Christ come together across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic boundaries. He broke down the dividing wall of hostility (Eph 2), and we should not desire to see them rebuilt.
This was a major part of Jesus’ pastoral prayer in John 17. That we be one so that the world would know… If this was a part of His prayer for His church, shouldn’t we be going about the work of seeing this become a reality?
Let’s spend the next couple of days thinking about His will, and His desires for our lives, and make those our resolutions. To do His will, for His pleasure, knowing that our deeds do follow us.
Along the Multicolored Road 
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