My Father Is Working
My Father Is Working
I want to speak to you today about the work of God, so that we may together contemplate the saying of our Lord Jesus Christ: “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17).
My Father Is Working
God works continually, at every time and every moment. When God rested on the seventh day, He moved from the work of creation to the work of care and providence. It is said of Him that He “neither slumbers nor sleeps.”
He Works with Everyone
With every kind of element, whatever its nature: with Thomas the doubter, Peter the impulsive, and John the son of promise. With Samson the mighty, and with Jacob the fearful…
Do not think that God will dispense with you one day, or ignore you and refuse to work with you. God is ready to work in every human being.
God works in Andrew the ignorant fisherman, and He works in Paul the philosopher.
God uses everyone. Even the sin of man, God may bring good out of it…
The betrayal of Judas, God used for the cause of salvation, as well as the cowardice of Pilate and the envy of the chief priests. Anything that falls into the hand of God, He can work with it. So be assured that God will work through you…
The work of God does not depend on your suitability, but rather on the power of God, who brings sweetness out of the strong.
Who would say that Peter, who feared a servant girl, and cursed and swore saying, “I do not know the Man,” would be fit to stand before governors and rulers?!
Who would say that Jacob who deceived his father, or Jeremiah who did not know how to speak because he was a child, or Moses who was slow of speech and tongue, would be fit for leadership and for carrying the message of God?!
Believe the Scripture: God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the strong, and the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; He also chose the despised and the things which are not.
Place yourself then in the hand of God, and say to Him: Work through me, O Lord, anything. Employ me in any work; You know Your work best… Believe me, if God were to choose in His work only the suitable elements, none of us would be fit for anything! For there is none righteous among us!
In His work, God can use the worm that ate the gourd, and He can use the gourd itself, to preach to the great prophet Jonah!
The worm can do a work in the Kingdom if it surrenders itself to the hand of God. Is it not wondrous that God even used Balaam’s donkey?! God is ready to work in the weak and in the strong. He is ready to use the five loaves to feed five thousand. “The battle is the Lord’s” (1 Samuel 17:47), and God is able “to save by many or by few” (1 Samuel 14:6).
Therefore, it is not fitting for anyone to excuse himself from the work of God because of lack of talents, for the matter is not one of human abilities and capacities! If we were the ones who would work, this might be said. But it is a work that God will do, not we.
When Gideon brought thirty thousand to fight with them, God rejected this large number lest Gideon attribute his victory to the multitude. God chose three hundred from them, and with them He granted victory, and God was glorified in the few.
So do not excuse yourself because you are few, and do not flee from the service of God.
Do not excuse yourself by your limited ability, for it is not your ability that will work, but God.
David did not go to Goliath by himself, but said: “I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts” (1 Samuel 17:45). And Peter said in the healing of the lame man: “By our own power or godliness we have not made this man walk” (Acts 3:12). It is God who works.
God works everything. He is the Physician, the Healer of our souls, bodies, and spirits. He is the Engineer who established the laws of the heavens. He is the Builder, for “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it” (Psalm 127:1). He is the Guardian who watches over the city. He is the Good Teacher. He is the Sower who went out to sow. He is the Servant who “came to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
And we glorify God when we find Him entering into every work and accomplishing it Himself.
God Is Always Working
Continually, He never ceases to work. Even on the Cross, He was promising Paradise to the thief, entrusting Mary to John, granting John a blessing, and interceding for those who crucified Him; He did not confine Himself only to redemption.
Even during His death, His spirit, united with His divinity, descended and brought out from Hades those who had reposed in hope, and entered them into Paradise, together with the right-hand thief.
The work of Christ did not end with redemption, nor with His Ascension into heaven, nor with His saying on the Cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He is working until now.
He says, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20), and “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” (Revelation 3:20). He gives an example of continual work.
In all this, He gives us an example that we may work continually for His Kingdom.
When He created Adam, He gave him work in Paradise—not for sustenance, for the good was abundant—but for the blessing of work and its benefit. He who does not work leaves himself to thoughts, laziness, and loss.
God Works in Silence and Humility
He works in complete calm, in silence, and perhaps in hiddenness. Often He attributes His work to some of His children, that they may be glorified by it.
You may ask for His help, and He gives it to you through the Virgin, or the Archangel Michael, or Saint George, or one of the living human beings; and He hides, and His children appear. Therefore, you must sense the hand of God in every good that reaches you.
You may think that God has forgotten you, or that He is silent and not working, while in the depth He is working for you without your knowing.
David the prophet reproached the Lord saying, “Why do You stand afar off? Why do You hide in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1). Yet God was not hidden, but working in silence. The disciples thought Him asleep in the boat while the waves beat against them, and they reproached Him saying, “Do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38). Yet at that very time He cared for them, and without Him they would have drowned. He answers with His same phrase: “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17).
It is impossible that God would hide in time of distress; otherwise the distress would swallow us. But from the bitterness of our souls we complain. If we had the eye of faith, we would see the work of God clearly, and we would see that those who are with us are more than those who are against us.
God is the Controller of all, who neither slumbers nor sleeps. Do not think Him far from you in your problems. He watches everything and works for your sake.
Imagine a man like Jonah. The waves raged until they nearly overturned the ship, Jonah was cast into the sea, and the great fish swallowed him. Was God silent during all this? No. Jonah cried out from the belly of the fish. And God said to him: Do not fear; I prepared the fish to swallow you. Everything happened according to My plan. The fish will carry you safely and deliver you unharmed to where I will.
He was not heedless of Jonah when the fish swallowed him, nor of Daniel when he was cast into the lions’ den, nor of the three young men in the fiery furnace. Tribulations surrounded them, and God was working for their good.
Daniel sensed His work and said with joy, “My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths” (Daniel 6:22). The three young men sensed His work when they saw Him walking with them in the fiery furnace, and He did not allow the fire to have power over their bodies or even their garments. Not one hair of their heads fell, nor was a single thread of their clothing burned.
Was it possible for the three young men to doubt God’s intervention and work?
The king issues his decree to bow to his gods, and it seems that God is silent. Then the three young men are seized, and God is silent! The king commands the furnace to be heated exceedingly, and God is silent! They carry the young men to the furnace, and God is silent! Then they cast them into the fire! In all this, it seems that God is silent!
But God was working in silence, and His work appeared at the proper time.
It is Satan who fights us by claiming that God does not work. Thus David said, “Lord, why have those who trouble me increased?” “Many are saying of my soul, ‘There is no salvation for him in his God.’” But is there truly no salvation? David continues and says, “But You, O Lord, are a shield for me, my glory and the One who lifts up my head…” (Psalm 3:1–3).
However long the time, the Lord must come, even if in the fourth watch.
However much the waves rage, the Lord will come walking on the sea, treading “upon the pride of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them” (Psalm 89:9).
Therefore, be at peace.
Be at peace concerning the work of God, and trust from all your depths that He is working. Say as David said: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me” (Psalm 23). “Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise against me, in this I will be confident” (Psalm 27). Faith gives birth to reassurance.
It is beautiful to trust in the work of God, so that we rest in His care, protection, and providence. In all our matters, we remember that God works, and we rest and rejoice. The phrase “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17) is undoubtedly a comforting phrase.
The Father works, and the Son also works, and the Holy Spirit works with us, and we enter with Him into spiritual communion. The whole Trinity works with us, and all the powers of heaven, and the spirits of the saints, and the ambassadors of Christ on earth.
Are not all His angels ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation? (Hebrews 1:14).
It is a comforting phrase: “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace” (Exodus 14:14).
Yet God works at the proper time and in the proper way.
He works with wisdom and patience, preparing and arranging everything. So do not be anxious. Wait for the Lord. Wait for Him with confidence. Say: The Lord will solve this matter. God will be glorified in it. I am confident.
Work with Him
In your trust in the Lord’s work, work with Him. You also say: “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17). Do not be slothful.
God works in us, works with us, and works through us. We are instruments in His hand.
Say to Him: I will work with You, O Lord, but I do not hide from You my weakness. I possess nothing but five smooth stones from the valley, and I have no weapon other than these with which to fight Goliath. And trust that God will say to you: These five stones are too many; I will grant you victory with one of them. Keep the other four as a remembrance.
And you will say to the Lord: Forgive the weakness of my faith, for I brought five stones. You have taught me by experience that one is enough, because my Father has been working until now.
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