Good Work

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8

 

” …abound in every good work” …don’t we desire for that to refer to what we do with our resources as women of God?

“Good work” is something that I think we struggle with, though. I think we struggle because we know it is so much a part of what God has willed for us, and we desire to be in His will. We want to be the women God intends for us, and so we know that part of that is doing good work.

But we so often are unsure of that “good work” may be ..aren’t we? Does the desire itself not leave us drowning in a wealth of possible good works? We are tempted to take on good things past what we can really do, because afterall ..its good…right?

I think that God is not as demanding as we are about what good work we are to do. I think that his guidelines for good work are less overwhelming than ours. Despite this incredible statement “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  Eph 2:10 …I think that we put more pressure on ourselves than God does.

To relieve some of that pressure we have to define “good work”.  I think a lot of the pressure that we create about what good work we do (and what we give ourselves credit for), is about what we consider “good”.

 When we say we have been created for good work, I think we may be tempted to picture only lofty things like taking care of orphans in the Philippines, and digging wells in Ethiopia. Of course, these are good work. But are they any more “good” than holding the hand of your child or taking time to connect to your husband when he is discouraged?

I think both types of good work is work that is blessed … we should not think of our "good work" as only being those things that Christians everywhere will get up and applaud.

You see, because “Good Work” is simply doing what you do in a way that brings God glory.

We are told that  “… whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17   …That is your Good Work.

If we combine that command with the promise that “.. God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need..”  …we can assume that God is given us all things at all times in order that “whatever we do in word or deed” we are able to “do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

There are a lot of implications if we believe that to be true:

…it means that everything from changing diapers, to digging wells can be Good Work; anything from cuddling with your child, to committing your life to caring for them in the Philippines is Good Work. Its anything that you do to the glory of God. Now, that being said I think that there are somethings that are better work that others for us (but we will get to that later).

….it means that if it is not glorifying to God then he didn’t give you “all things at all times” for it.

….it means that your Good Work may include things that don’t seem that ” good” …because “all 

things” is pretty inclusive of everything, good and bad, fun or not fun, easy or hard…but if we are doing it to God’s glory then it is good.

…it means that your Good Work is proportionally supplied. You have what you need for “whatever you do” …no matter how much you need to do it.

We are going to explore these ideas more this coming week. My hope is that when we better understand that God has given “all that you need”  for a reason, then we will use it better. My prayer is that with a better understanding of why he has given us what we need, then we be better supplied for “all things, at all times.”

May your Good Work be well supplied today, sisters.  He is faithful.

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This post was orginally posted on the Seeds of Faith for Women website on March 12th, 2012

you can find it here.