It does no good to chest-thump online about theonomy, or #datpostmil if your lawn resembles the Amazon Rainforest, your sheets haven’t been washed in weeks, your children are unruly & unloved, and your finances are a wreck. Building a Christian culture takes sanctified work.
Not busy work. Not self-righteous work. Not the work of slaves. But grace saturated work. If we would build a Christian nation, it means we actually need to be able to build. Not just figuratively, but literally. This undertaking requires diligent hands, faithful hearts, wise minds, and unswerving zeal. It will involve both sawdust and flour, sweaty brows and calloused hands, stacks of dog-eared books, and well-worn garden trowels.
Psalm 90 concludes with a prayer we must learn to pray: “Let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” If God’s beauty rests upon us only then will our work be firmly established.
Works of selfish ambition & vainglory must give way to works of mercy & worship. Faithful Christian work is no longer the futile labor of self-preservation, it’s the work of giving your life away. You build wealth, not to horde, but in order to provide work, food, shelter and healing for not only your children, but for multitudes.
The drumbeat of Christian work is diligence. We aren’t gamblers swept off by the latest gold-rush. We lay strong foundations, we restore ruins, we tame forests, we nurture the streams. We do so in order that our children’s children might not only build upon those foundations, but extend the borders. Our diligent work isn’t to make a name for ourselves, but because we’ve received the name of Christ. So, we work to bring glory to His name.
Christ saved us from the futile works of sin, and set us to work the works of faith. The Father has prepared good works for us to do, well in advance of us doing them. Yet often we turn aside through laziness, sloth, cowardice, or compromise. We excuse untidy homes by some vague mention of how busy we’ve been. We blame our business failures on the economy. We claim all sorts of reasons as to why we’ve avoided the hard work God’s providence has set before us to do. If we would see reformation, we must come to God for forgiveness over our lazing about, and ask that His Spirit might be poured out upon us that we might work the works of faith and good works. All to the glory of Christ our King.
Our work, if it is to last, must be built on the foundation of God’s grace to us in Christ. every other foundation will crumble. But if we build on sins forgiven and mercy extended, than the Lord will indeed establish the work of our hands. So we repent, and then we get to work.
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