Under Construction: Trusting God to Finish the Work
[Reading Time: c5 mins]
And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:18
Life has been hectic over the last couple of months. There was no devotion in April as I took some time off to rest and refresh. I went on a wonderful retreat in Devon at Lee Abbey. It was blissful! No phone signal, limited internet connection, breathtaking views, beautiful people, time to seek and hear from God. When life is full and fast, it’s essential to take time out to gain a fresh perspective.
One thing I realise about rest is that it takes trust. When we stop working, even when some of our work remains unfinished, we demonstrate that we trust God. We trust God to hold things together. We realise that the world doesn’t need us to keep working for it to keep spinning. We trust God to provide for our needs as we obey His command to rest and lay our work aside for a period. Resting when things look unfinished is an act of faith.
Recently I shared a sermon Filled For The Work based on Exodus 31:1-11, where God gives artistic ability to Bezalel and Oholiab along with other artisans so that they were able to construct the tabernacle. At this time in Israel’s history, this was the place where God’s spirit dwelt. God filled them with His spirit so that they could do this work.
In the same way in this new era, the era of the spirit empowered church, the people of God are now the tabernacle of God, the temple of God and the place where His spirit dwells. All those who receive and follow Jesus are filled for the work of building up God’s people, God’s church. However, this is no easy construction project.
The Lord showed me that many of us are discouraged because church life doesn’t always look the way it should. We become discouraged because people do not always behave in the ways they should. We become frustrated even with ourselves and our spiritual progress because we are still struggling in certain areas. We haven’t reached the perfection we so deeply desire.
However, we must be careful because discouragement can cause us to lay down our tools permanently and give up on the work of building altogether. Like Nehemiah, we can not allow discouragement and the enemy’s intimidation to cause us to stop building. Instead, we need to pray that the Lord will strengthen our hands (Nehemiah 6:9).
When church, when life, when relationships seem messy, broken, and chaotic, we need to remind ourselves that they are still under construction. If you turned up at a building site, you wouldn’t expect everything to look perfect or finished. You would accept that the work was still in progress.
The church is God’s building; it’s still under construction because Jesus Christ has not yet returned. Things are not perfect, but we can trust they are being perfected through God’s Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul encourages us with these words ‘being confident of this that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 1:6).
Jesus told us that He would build His church and that hell could not stop Him (Matthew 16:18); this is a promise. This promise is our hope. Jesus is the master-builder, but we are co-labourers with Christ (1 Corinthians 3:9). When we see brokenness, when we see that the building is unfinished, rather than seeing an obstacle or a disappointment, I hope that we will see an invitation to join Christ in building up His church, His people.
This work is not easy, so I want to encourage us to take the rest that we need so that we can be refreshed. But being faithful as coworkers with Christ means we rest, but we do not retire because we trust that God will finish the work He has begun in and through us.
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