Workers or Sons?

Today I went to church. It's the church that our daughter goes to and the one I went to Sunday School at forty years ago!

During the worship I enjoyed the presence of the Father. The leader led with an openness of heart which drew us along with him. As a result we stopped being followers and became participators.

As a church they are about to start a building project and the pastor's sermon was about that. Though not about raising money, nor about all the wonderful work they might do from their new building. No, the pastor spoke to people's hearts and used Psalm 127 as his text. "Unless the Lord builds the house its builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain."

His central theme was that anything we do in our own strength can be hard work, will lack rest and will not have the Father's blessing on it. His encouragement was that doing the Father's work will bring blessing and rest.

The Psalm contrasts those working on their own with sons. It is so easy to drift into doing things in our own strength and becoming weary and burdened. We can start labouring on our own and lose the rest and peace that comes from walking with the Father. Sons, on the other hand, can live in the promises and inheritance of the Father. Yes, they work and maybe they work hard but the fruit of what they do is a result of the Father's blessing and not their own hard work!