Be sure to carry out the work the Lord gave you. (Colossians 4:17-18)
Be sure – Paul says this in a letter to encourage other Christ followers to stay the course.
This is his reminder at the end right before he signs his name.
Be sure.
How do we know we are doing the work God gave us and not something else?
There’s a lot of work to be done out there. What is my work? What’s yours?
And what happens if we do the wrong work?
Be sure.
Ask.
This is my best answer for those questions. Ask the one giving the work.
Ask daily, what do you want me to attend to today?
Ask hourly, help me prioritize all the work before me.
Ask momentarily, am I attending to what I should right now.
And then trust.
Trust in action looks oddly like giving up.
Trust let’s go of control and moves a step forward.
Trust doesn’t step aside, or watch from behind a veil.
It moves in step with the one the trust is in.
That’s where the moment by moment ask comes in.
When doubt knocks at your heart,
Ask invites God to reveal.
Ask and Trust walk together and build towards being sure.
This is faith.
And it is simple and easy some days and deeply difficult on other days.
But it builds over time, our stride lengthens while Ask and Trust walk.
And then Paul says after he signs his name –
“Remember my chains.”
Ouch. He’s in chains. In prison.
Telling me how to trust God.
He is bound. Unable to move anywhere.
And yet, he is free.
More free than us in some ways because he can see his chains.
He can feel them around his ankles.
Do we recognize our chains?
Do we see the circumstances that encumber our lives?
Remember our chains.
If we each can do this, we could Ask and Trust God with them.
Our Surety can loosen the chains,
slipping breath beneath their tight grip, until we move in Freedom.
Freedom to carry out the work the Lord gave us.