Psalm 90:17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

Have you heard or said, “That looks easy. I’d like to do that!” The issue of God’s work often does look easy from the outside. It looks so easy that we often mistakenly give credit to man for the effort. We are but a cooperative, a vessel, thru which the Lord does of His will and His good pleasure.

It is wrong to give man praise for what the Lord has done. We should encourage men who are doing those good works, yes, but praise no. Do you praise your hand for writing the check that you place in the offering plate? No, of course not. You might well be grateful that the hand does not shake, that the writing is legible, but this too is beyond the hands ability to control, but is cooperative just as man is cooperative with the works of God.

The ability to make it look easy comes thru many trials and tribulations. No man can come to the point of making anything look easy without having practiced the craft for a long time. A man rocks on his porch whittling, teaching his grandson an age old craft. Look at the works of their hands. The old weather worn hands move with confidence of experience and make it look so easy. No so the grandson.

Men of God are no different in doing the Lord’s work. It takes experience to let go of self-effort and turn control over to God who does and wills of His own good pleasure.

1 Timothy 1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches.

So now we come to the last. We have identified purpose in four men’s lives. Now we can talk about God’s purpose.

Ephesians 1:9, 3:11 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

So often we look for our purpose in life and we forget that it is God who gives life purpose and those purposes are found in Him and in Christ. The issue is here in verse 41 in that these men having found their purpose, having achieved their purpose, were a part of the much larger picture. The confirming of the church, the bride of Christ, that we would grow up to be a worthy help meet for our Lord and Savior, our bridegroom, Jesus Christ.

We need to find purpose. We need to identify how God worked in others to fulfill His purpose and in that we might, just might, find an example of how God is working in us to do the same. It is all a recognition of pattern. God does not change. His purpose is One. His will is One. Nothing He will do in us will be anything different than that which He has already done in those who came before us.

There are set before us many fine examples of men and women of God who have found their purpose. We should never think of ourselves as so special and different that God is doing something different in us. Being special and different is disorderly and misguided. Those are the lies of the enemy who wants to enslave us to his special kind of hell.

Look for godly examples of godly people to find your purpose in Christ.