Satisfying Employment

[Thompson, Darryl]

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Ellen G. White Estate, Devotional for December 8
Visit us at http://www.whiteestate.org
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Satisfying Employment

My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. John 5:17. 


Heaven is a place of interested activity; yet to the weary and heavy
laden, to those who have fought the good fight of faith, it will be a
glorious rest; for the youth and vigor of immortality will be theirs,
and against sin and Satan they will no longer have to contend. To these
energetic workers a state of eternal indolence would be irksome. It
would be no heaven to them. 

To the dwellers in Eden was committed the care of the garden, "to dress
it and to keep it." Their occupation was not wearisome, but pleasant and
invigorating. God appointed labor as a blessing to man, to occupy his
mind, to strengthen his body, and to develop his faculties. In mental
and physical activity Adam found one of the highest pleasures of his
holy existence. . . . 

Those who regard work as a curse, attended though it be with weariness
and pain, are cherishing an error. The rich often look down with
contempt upon the working classes, but this is wholly at variance with
God's purpose in creating man. What are the possessions of even the most
wealthy in comparison with the heritage given to the lordly Adam? Yet
Adam was not to be idle. Our Creator, who understands what is for man's
happiness, appointed Adam his work. The true joy of life is found only
by the working men and women. 

Work is constantly being done in heaven. There are no idlers there. "My
Father worketh hitherto," said Christ, "and I work." We cannot suppose
that when the final triumph shall come, and we have the mansions
prepared for us, idleness will be our portion--that we shall rest in a
blissful, do-nothing state. 

God designs that all shall be workers. The toiling beast of burden
answers the purpose of its creation better than does the indolent man.
God is a constant worker. The angels are workers; they are ministers of
God to the children of men. Those who look forward to a heaven of
inactivity will be disappointed, for the economy of heaven provides no
place for the gratification of indolence. But to the weary and
heavy-laden rest is promised. It is the faithful servant who will be
welcomed from his labors to the joy of his Lord.

>From Maranatha - Page 350