LIVING WORD DEVOTIONAL
By Pastor Mensa Otabil
Friday 29th October 2021
BUILD SOMETHING
Scripture Reading: Exodus 36:1-13
Then all the gifted artisans among them who worked on the Tabernacle made ten curtains woven of fine linen, and of blue, purple, and scarlet thread; with artistic designs of cherubim they made them. Exodus 36:8
In addition to thinking productive thoughts and speaking life-giving words, we must produce fruitful works. When God wanted Israel to build the Tabernacle in the wilderness, He gave them the pattern and plans for the structure to be created. However, the people had to work with their gifts to make all the parts needed for the building. It took a combination of patterns, talents and a lot of work to translate God’s thoughts into reality.
Everything around us—from such significant inventions as bridges, cars, and spacecraft to seemingly insignificant objects such as hairpins—is the fruit of someone’s mind and hands. Someone had a thought and probably wrote it down as a proposal before it was produced for use.
Think about it for a moment. How did we get chairs, books, computers, clothes, toothpaste, telephones, buildings and all the other things that make our lives comfortable? We know that they did not materialize from Heaven. Someone was pregnant with a seed—an idea—and delivered them to us. Those seed-ideas were developed. Physical materials were shaped to give life to them, and the people who brought them into existence did so to fulfil God’s command to be fruitful.
To be fruitful, we must build something. We must turn our ideas into things that can be seen and experienced. Usually, people use what you have created to assess you. At a job interview, the panel will not be impressed by your glossy resume. After describing yourself with high-sounding adjectives, they would want to see proof of what you have done. They would like to see your fruit.
Experience is not just about how long you’ve lived; it is about how much and how well you’ve built. Fruitfulness, or the lack of it, is the record by which God and our fellow human beings judge us. The things we produce are our testimony.
The things we build honour the grace of God on our lives. God has given each of us the ability to bring our ideas to life. Let’s make something to God’s glory.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, you made me to also make things. Help me bring the ideas you give me into reality. In Jesus’ name, Amen.