"Eternal Doings"

"Eternal Doings"   

   As this week's memory verse states, God's doings bear eternal substance and consequence.  

   "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him" (Ecclesiastes 3:14).

   This is fact and reality, regardless of our awareness of the blessed truth.   Can we say with Solomon, "I know that…"?  Do we realize that when we ask our Lord to act, our prayers constitute a request for God to do something that will have ramifications forever?  When the Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray for God's will to be "done on earth as it is in Heaven", He meant that we make our supplications in the light of eternity far more than the shadows of time.

   "We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:18).

   Such truth presses us to pray in accordance with Scriptural revelation.  The Bible reveals our Heavenly Father's "eternal purpose in Christ", beckoning us to view matters in terms that transcend our earthly, temporal perspective (Ephesians 3:11).  When we ask God to provide "our daily bread", for example, such provision may appear to involve little more than the filling of our bellies in order to sustain physical existence.  This is true in the most limited sense of the Lord's answer.  However, the supply of one morsel  provided by Divine generosity "shall be forever" as a part of "whatsoever God doeth".  This enhances our view of Him as the One who "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 3:11).  However, it also magnifies our view of prayer.  The request for a crumb of bread in this present life actually involves the prayer for a Divinely provided gift that will bear eternal, infinite consequences.  The provision of the crumb somehow fits into the promulgation of Christ.  God reveals and glorifies His Son as He fulfills His promise to "supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

   The more we learn about prayer, including the truth we presently consider, the more God's truth causes us to still ourselves a bit in order to consider what it means to "let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6).  When we think of prayer, in Biblical terms, we must ponder quality far more than quantity.  How well we pray bears far more importance than how much we pray.  God does not hear us for our "much speaking" (Matthew 6:7).  He rather hears us as we pray "according to His will" (I John 5:14).  Knowing that the works of God we request "are forever" purifies both our motives and our methods regarding the blessed gift of seeking our Lord's gracious and eternal doings on behalf of ourselves and others.

"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life."

(I John 5:20) 

Weekly Memory Verse

    I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him.

(Ecclesiastes 3:14)