(This morning’s devotion is based on the Easter message: Jesus Wins! (CLICK HERE)
Same old…Same old.
Another day… another dollar.
Nothings going to change.
Stuck on the hamster wheel called life.
Ever feel this way? Does life seem somewhat meaningless and pointless at times? Or perhaps just like what you do each day doesn’t make a difference?
These thoughts have rolled through my mind at times. I’m guessing I’m not alone.
Even as a pastor, life can have moments where it seems like what you are doing isn’t making a difference. You do your best to serve people and one thing goes wrong and they leave the church. You do your best to prepare a biblical, gospel-centered, practical sermon and someone hears something that they are upset about for over a year before you know about it. You spend hours planning, setting up, and executing a large outreach event to have no one show up at church after the event.
Sometimes it just seems like what you do doesn’t matter.
What makes it harder is everyone has a desire to do something that makes a difference. While it may not have to change the world, it would be nice if something you did mattered to someone and made a positive impact in someway.
Insert the resurrection.
I wonder if the followers of Jesus felt like they had just wasted 2-3 years of their life to spend with Jesus. Their hopes of a Messiah perhaps vanished when the Roman soldiers seemed to have the last move by nailing him to the cross. As the two disciples on the way to Emmaus said, “We had hoped he would be the Messiah.”
Death seemed to dash those hopes.
Insert the resurrection!
What seemed like an utter failure all of a sudden took on significant meaning and purpose. Jesus wasn’t a fake. Jesus wasn’t dead. Jesus wasn’t a waste of time. In fact, his resurrection changed everything. Life now had a new perspective, a new hope, and yes, a new purpose.
At the end of 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul ends with this conclusion as a result of the reality of the resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
Because Jesus lives, we can give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because all we do for the Lord always has purpose!
So begin today with a new sense of purpose. You don’t work for your boss…you work for the Lord. You don’t work for your family…you work for the Lord! You don’t work for your teacher…you work for the Lord!
The resurrection gives us significant purpose as we go about our days with a new perspective…I serve the living Lord!
Apply: THink about what you are doing today. What changes in your mind and heart when you FIRST think, “I am serving the Lord”? Does your attitude to do those things change?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for rising from the dead and giving every aspect and every activity of my day meaning and purpose! AMEN.