TEXT: JOHN 5:7
''But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work'' KJV
''But Jesus answered them, My Father has worked [even] until now, [He has never ceased working; He is still working] and I, too, must be at [divine] work.'' AMPC
God is unresting, unhasting but silent as light; never a day, since the first-stone foundation of the universe was laid, did God stop working: as long as there is a need for the sun to shine in the day, the moon and the stars during the night hours, God must keep at His work. At what time He stops working, creation would descend into the abyss of nothingness; creatures are, because He lives and a-working: 'Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.' (Psalm 104:29) All breathe, because God breathes: in Him we live, move and have our being. May faith say, 'Because He lives, I shall live; because He is strong, I am strong; because nothing can foil Him, no temptation shall foil me; for I am the smoke of His burning; He can never say, 'My lamp is gone out, for I have no more oil left!' I am the light of His lamp, since He lacks no oil, I shall ever be a burning and shining ligh!' Christians, if in idleness we lie and make not any shift in grace and holy duty, we declare we are unlike our father who is always working. We blame not the Egyptians for inactivities, for who can stir in great darkness? but those in Goshen, who have light, sin, if in sloth they live. Woe to all who are at ease in Zion! For a saint, all his life is a ploughing time; warring time, talking, meditating or reading moments. For him, he has graces to improve; sins to mortify; temptations to master, souls to rescue from Satan's clutch; lost sheep to go after until he finds it; lost coins to search out and a lost and dead son to find and make alive. The godly man's sworn enemy, neither slumber nor sleep: he is a terror by night, an arrow that flies by day; a pestilence that walks in darkness and in the noonday, is a destruction that wastes lives and times: all these should put pilgrims alive and awake; in watch and ward. Brothers, our Father worketh hitherto, and work, must we work! Amen!