Years ago I was introduced to a daily prayer resource from a monastic community called the Northumbria Community. The daily office (the daily prayers) include morning, midday and evening prayers. They are supposed to help the believer guide their day in the presence of the Lord. It is incredibly formative! The midday prayer was simple, but always began with these words from Psalm 90:17, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Establish Thou the work of our hands; establish thou the work of our hands." Every day as we go about whatever business we have, we are meant to pause and remember who leads us in our work. Ephesians 2:10 also says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." In the garden Adam, too, was created for good work: to fill the earth and subdue it. God really cares about our work! He created us for good work. He prepared our work ahead of time. He desires that we walk in the good work he gives us. He establishes the work of our hands. He wants our work to reflect our relationship with our Creator.
For some of us, it's easy to know exactly what that work is. We have jobs that provide a paycheck. For some of us, we literally use our hands--to operate machinery, to repair things, to make food, to check vitals, etc. For others, our hands may type on a keyboard or hold the phone a lot, handle paperwork or draw on the whiteboard, manage schedules and people. The work of our hands feels more like the work of our minds. But that is good work too. For still others, we don't get a paycheck for our work, but it is no less important. Maybe we care for our children or aging parents, homeschool, plan events, volunteer for non-profits or the fire department. One church I served had a group called "willing workers". It was a group of older retired folks who volunteered to care for the gardens on the church grounds. Every Spring they would clean up and plant the gardens, carefully weed and fertilize them regularly, and clean them up every Fall. The result was a beautiful little garden on the side of the building full of lush flowers with a little walkway that our neighbors would walk through and enjoy. Though that group was retired, their work brought joy to others!
For some of us, our "work" for each day is even harder to identify. Maybe we're not able to do the work we're used to doing and feel like our purpose in life is slipping through our fingers. But what if God was still establishing the work of your hands? Maybe the biggest investment in your day is the treatment or therapy you have to get through and you don't have energy for much else. That is still incredibly important work. While we have breath in our lungs, God has good work for us to do! He has given us good work to love and serve him, to love and serve and pray for others, to encourage, to leave a legacy of faithfulness, to tell the story of God's love. No matter what our work looks like for each day, let's approach it with the knowledge that God himself is preparing it us, and pray that prayer regularly, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us. Establish Thou the work of our hands; Establish Thou the work of our hands!"
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