Keep His Works

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

overcometh- prevails, conquers
keepeth- guards, holdfast
works- deeds, labour, acts

How do we guard Christ's deeds?
How do we holdfast to Christ's labours, His acts?

Seriously? How? If we're to prevail in this life and keep Christ's works to the end, what are we doing? What action? Guarding, holding fast, keeping the works of Christ.

If we're busy doing this guarding, this keeping we are occupied with doing so. Being a Christian isn't a check box we mark on a form that asks us if we have a religious preference. Being Christian isn't something we are one day a week, it's a way of life. Jesus' way of life. It's something that incorporates all that we are and all that we do. We can't separate our lives into little compartments and say this one is my work self, this is my home self, this is my public self, this is my private self, this is my religious self, this is my worldly self, this is my evil self, this is my relative self, this is my close friend self and yet don't we often find ourselves adjusting to various situations accordingly? Such as behaving one way in public and another in private. Allowing more leniency in behavior when no one is watching. It's natural isn't it? Natural for us to show our anger more to those close to us than those who aren't. Natural for us to bring home our upsets and sadness than to weep in public. We learn early on what sort of behavior is accepted where. We learn by the examples of our parents, by the various situations we see whether in real life or fictional on television, maybe even in school. We learn that in church you are to be reverent because in that building God is somehow closer to us, but once we step out the door we leave that behind and so things are back to every day life- actions and reactions without much consideration for God being close to us.

People like to compartmentalize their lives and yet if we are to truly keep the works of Jesus we can't compartmentalize Him. He is a way of life, not one compartment in many. He is life.

The devil would have us treat Jesus and our walk with Him as something that only happens every now and again, once a week, once a day, three times a week, three times a day, four...five. He would have us put our Christianity into points of time rather than having our Christianity timeless and forever in us.

We need to follow Christ fully and perhaps you're saying that you can't really think about God while you're sitting at a desk under the grind of paper work, or while you're out there banging away at a hammer constructing a house it's not good to be distracted by anything when you're busy concentrating on what you're doing for your job whatever it may be, even if it's putting together a recipe for dinner that night.

No one is saying that to be fully Christ's you have to stop doing your job. Christ was a carpenter and for years He concentrated on doing His job while being prepared for His ministry. While He planed that wood was His mind not on the correct way of doing it, of taking off just the right amount of wood to complete what He was doing? No, Christ concentrated on His work as well, but He was forever God's. He consecrated Himself to God in all that He did.

Christ didn't want us to stop working, but in all that we do, we do it to the glory of God.

1Cor 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

For our lives to be Christ's, for us to keep His works our lives must be consecrated to Him and all we do must be done to the glory of God. Can you dig a ditch to the glory of God? Yes. Can you sweep a floor to the glory of God? Yes. You can live and do all to the glory of God if He is truly alive and real in our lives and not put into a compartment to pull open as desired.

May God help us all as we seek Him in all that we do. If we are having trouble giving glory to God in something we do, may we ask for His mercy and grace, His help in our time of need to overcome whatever may be hindering our walk with Christ. Only by His righteousness do we have hope, by faith in His ability to overcome and save us through His grace.

By His mercy and love, in Him now and forever.

Amen.