“But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”—1 Corinthians 15:57-58
Long before the invention of radio, television, the Internet, and the rise of our all-encompassing media culture, a British essayist named Walter Savage Landor wrote, “When little men cast long shadows, it is a sign that the sun is setting.” In an age when fame and notoriety have replaced accomplishment as the fastest way to become viewed as someone of importance, we should never forget that our work is not about the temporal and fleeting values of our culture but about the eternal impact of our labor for the Lord.
If we evaluate ourselves by the world’s standards, we are going to be dissatisfied with the results. Not every faithful servant of God receives acclaim and the notice of others. In fact, many Christians live in obedience to God without ever coming to public attention. They are faithful to their families and to their churches, they treat others with love and share the Gospel with them, and they do their best to order their lives by God’s Word. Yet their names are never splashed across news headlines, and they never receive the accolades and praise doled out to the latest celebrity.
While the world may regard such people as failures, God most certainly does not. He is looking for people who will be faithful and consistent without regard to whether or not they are receiving praise and attention. The knowledge that our work for God—the normal, hard, everyday work of life—is not in vain allows us to continue on faithfully. And as we do, we know that one day He will say, “Well done. –Daily in the Word
