Daily Devotional: Wednesday, April 21

Speaker: Paul Diaz

Theme: Make Your Work Worth It

Weekend Music links on iTunes: Break My Heart by Mike Flathers; Yesterday, Today and Forever by Vicky Beeching; Your Name by Paul Baloche; Rescue by Desperation Band.

Read: Matthew 25: 14-30; Proverbs 14: 23

Think: This week Paul continued the series "Your bucket list" and focused on work, ‘Does my work matter?'

‘God wants us to be diligent in our work' that is showing persistent and hard-working effort in what we do, to do it to the best of our ability. Like the servants in today's passage we have all been given ‘talents' or gifts from God and He wants to see us do well with them and use them not only for Him but for our good. When we work with all our heart using all our skills we honor God as the faithful servant honored God, doing our best and showing we are different. Sometimes it may not feel that what we do is important... tidying and cleaning for example rarely feel like a good use of skills but without us doing them to our best our lives become cluttered and burdened with ‘stuff' and we become ill. Just watch one episode of Hoarders to see how life could be if we do not give it our best all the time.

Whatever you do, do well. This week as some people from Timberlake are in Haiti doing what they can to help they are showing us an example of Proverbs 14; 23, that hard work brings profit. This profit may not be one like the faithful servant showed but it will affect not only the lives of the team but the lives of those they reach out to help. In taking their gifts and doing them to their utmost this week lives will be changed. While we may not be in a position to make such significant differences by doing our best we will also affect the lives of others and ourselves.

Do: Take a few minutes to think about the things that you do that you are good at....God has given each of us gifts and skills even if we are not sure yet what they are! As you go about your day try to do whatever you do to the best of your ability and remember, from yesterday, God wants us to enjoy it.

Pray: Dear Lord, thank you that you have given each of us an area in which we can be diligent using our gifts. For those who are unsure of what those gifts are I ask for your clarity and guidance as they search for them. I also ask for your strength and joy to do our best at each task no matter how small. I lift up to you the people who have gone to help in Haiti this week, and ask for your protection over them as they go about accomplishing your work. May your comfort be in their hearts when they see situations too painful to bear. Give them your strength to go about their tasks as they do them to the best of their ability with your joy in their hearts. Amen

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.

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