Good and Faithful Servants

UV 2792/10000 Good and Faithful Servants
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
I Corinthians 15 v 58
We are to be steadfast or consistent, dogged, determined, dedicated, devoted in our faith in Christ Jesus. Our faith should be like a strong root of a big tree, unshakeable, unmoveable. Once we are rooted in Christ in faith, our work of faith, our labour of love and patience of hope will never fail. We need to be zealous to do good works in the name of Jesus for His glory and by His grace. In other words, we are to be strong and do all the good we can in every way we can and our work will surely be rewarded both here and in the hereafter.
Ruth was an example of steadfast faith in the way she stuck with her mother-in-law even though the death of her husband had dissolved her bonds with her husband’s family and his God. We are to hold our confidence in Christ in like manner till the very end, growing even stronger in faith with time and experience. Trials and tribulations, doubts and fears should draw us closer to Jesus and not break our covenant relationship with Him, sealed with His blood and the Holy Spirit.
As our faith grows in strength and depth, grace and love of Christ should be increasingly manifest in our lives. We ought to abound in the work of the Lord. While the Word will strengthen our faith, our work for the Lord will demonstrate our love for Him. The work of the Lord involves spreading the fragrance of His name and the hope of the good news that mankind can live forever, free from judgement, by grace. The work of the Lord also implies excelling in all that we do, in doing everything as if we are doing it for Him. The work of the Lord means to conform to the character of Christ in order to produce His characteristics- or the fruit of the spirit. The more the fruit, the more blessed we are and the more pleased the Lord is. Prayer, praise, thanksgiving, fasting, worship, using our talents for the glory of God, giving to the needy and serving the poor are other important work of the Lord that we should abound in. When we abound in all these aspects, then we will be called “good and faithful servants”.
Prateep V Philip