Loving God of all wisdom, please help this dear reader in their life with those things that don't always make sense; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text for today comes from Isaiah 49: 1 Listen, far-flung islands, pay attention, faraway people: God put me to work from the day I was born. The moment I entered the world he named me. 2 He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate. He kept his hand on me to protect me. He made me his straight arrow and hid me in his quiver. 3 He said to me, "You're my dear servant, Israel, through whom I'll shine." 4 But I said, "I've worked for nothing. I've nothing to show for a life of hard work. Nevertheless, I'll let God have the last word. I'll let him pronounce his verdict." 5 "And now," God says, this God who took me in hand from the moment of birth to be his servant, To bring Jacob back home to him, to set a reunion for Israel - What an honor for me in God's eyes! That God should be my strength! 6 He says, "But that's not a big enough job for my servant - just to recover the tribes of Jacob, merely to round up the strays of Israel. I'm setting you up as a light for the nations so that my salvation becomes global!" 7 God, Redeemer of Israel, The Holy of Israel, says to the despised one, kicked around by the nations, slave labor to the ruling class: "Kings will see, get to their feet - the princes, too - and then fall on their faces in homage Because of God, who has faithfully kept his word, The Holy of Israel, who has chosen you." (The Message)
Have you ever had a thankless job? Or what seemed or seems like a job where you give and give and give and work and work and work, and no one at any time stops to give you thanks? Oh, you're a parent? Well, along those lines is what the prophet felt about what he was called to be and to do. Isaiah knew from his brith to that which he had been called and made. Yet, he felt like it was a thankless job that never accomplished that for which God called him. But his faith never wavered and he never gave up, stating, "I let (God) have the last work." And so it shall be not only for Isaiah but for the church and for you and me to that which we have been called. It is or seems like a neverending task, but still we labor on and do that which needs to be done; sharing the love of the God who loves all people with the hope that people would start loving others in return.
The day is coming and only God knows how soon, when all that has been shared and planted, will come to blossom and bloom and great will be the harvest. Until that day, we labor on.
PRAYER: God of all strength, help me to labor on in Your work. Let me not be concerned so much about tomorrow as what is before me today, so that in all things I might be faithful. I pray this prayer in faith in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
