God is Working

Today has been such a wonderful day!  Having a holiday for Columbus Day, the day filled with work at home doing the usual (laundry, cleaning, cooking) and the seasonal (canning apple butter).  Of course, the day was interwoven with twin five-year-old daughters playing about, coming in and out and chatting.

This was a day off from work – and yet a day of working at home.

I love these days!  I love the freedom to pick and choose from the long list of “to-do’s,” designing a pliable, moldable schedule.  Nowhere to be – nowhere to go – just the nest-building, nest-primping activities of a “homemaker-at-heart.”  One thing this “homemaker-at-heart” loves to do is home canning.

To help store the canning for the winter, I looked on Craigslist a while ago for a small antique-y cabinet to fit in our kitchen.  Cupboard space in our small kitchen is minimal and it’s always fun to find a practical item for a “good deal.” After purchasing a jelly cupboard that was just right, I went to work canning fresh blackberry jam, dill pickles and pickled green beans. Now that apples have come into season, this weekend we continued our yearly family tradition of making spiced apple butter.

Today was the last of the apple-butter-making project.  It is such a sense of accomplishment to stand back after completing this enjoyable task and look over the finished product! 

As every day, several times today my thoughts turned to God. First of all, I thanked God for this day off. But even more than that, I thought today of how God is always at work. He is always helping, always comforting, always teaching the teachable, always loving, always extending a hand of mercy, and always speaking truth.  I truly rest in that!  Knowing that God is always at work gives me security and such joy. 

And also, there is a work God has done that is finished.  Jesus spoke his final words on the cross, “It is finished.”  (John 19:20)

As Mathew Henry Commentary so poetically stated,

“It is finished; that is, the counsels of the Father concerning his sufferings were now fulfilled. It is finished; all the types and prophecies of the Old Testament, which pointed at the sufferings of the Messiah, were accomplished. It is finished; the ceremonial law is abolished; the substance is now come, and all the shadows are done away. It is finished; an end is made of transgression by bringing in an everlasting righteousness. His sufferings were now finished, both those of his soul, and those of his body. It is finished; the work of man's redemption and salvation is now completed.”

Do you know God?  Do you believe in the finished work that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross?  Do you know how God works to draw you to Him? 

Verses from the Bible:

Romans 8:28          “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,    who have been called according to his purpose.”

Philippians 2:13    “For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

Knowing Him,
Susie