Encouragement in Christ's Work

God who created us and provides for all our needs is able to bring encouragement when we need it too.  There may be some people whose constitution resembles iron, impervious to pretty much everything other than rust.  I have grown in my appreciation of the encouragement God brings that unexpectedly reveals how much I needed it.  The best encouragement comes from God, and He is able to use countless means and ways to apply it to our hearts and minds.  Even when our hearts are wearied by troubles, the LORD knows how to minister to and through us.

I took encouragement today from the benediction at the end of the book of Hebrews.  Hebrews 13:20-21 reads, "Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, ²¹ make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."  Our God is the "God of peace," the almighty LORD who brings healing and wholeness by His grace.  We who were once strangers and far off from God have been brought near by the Gospel, united with the risen Christ.  As Jesus died and rose again, so we were once dead in sins and now have been raised to new life through the covenant in His blood shed for us.

Unlike those whose gods are crafted by the design of men from stone or wood that cannot speak, see, hear, know or do, the LORD Jesus is our Good Shepherd.  He protects and provides for us continually, and makes us complete in every good work to do His will.  God is working in us what is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, and this requires trust and submission to Him.  Perhaps we thought we could be merely passive observers or beneficiaries of this work without personal investment, yet we are called to work out our own freely received salvation.  It may surprise you it is to those who labour and are burdened Jesus tells to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him in Matthew 11:28-30:  "Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  Our labours and burdens are too much for us alone, and thus Jesus calls us to come to Him and find rest--not a rest from labour or a promise of a trouble-free existence--but a new life sustained and encouraged by Him.

What is "well pleasing" in God's sight is often very different from what is pleasing to our view.  We want to see people or trying circumstances to change, whilst God is using those things to change us, make us complete in every good work to do His will and works in us what is well pleasing in His sight.  The God of peace that united the resurrected Son of God with a glorified body is able to finish the work in us He has begun by His grace.  We are often weak, forgetful, foolish, lazy and clueless about God's work, yet He is faithful.  God speaks to us and teaches us through His word, and the indwelling Holy Spirit continues to guide and leads us even when we are reluctant and contrary.  Today Jesus is making us complete in every good work to do His will, working in us what is well pleasing in His sight.  Knowing this, even when things are tiring, painful and hard there is always encouragement found in Jesus.