1 Samuel 14:45
And the people said unto Saul, Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? God forbid: as the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground; for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people rescued Jonathan, that he died not.
One of the great statements said about Jonathan was that he wrought with God. The word wrought means to labor. In other words, Jonathan labored with God. Jonathan got into the yoke with God to do God’s work with Him. The result of this action is that a miraculous victory was won.
Many want to see the miraculous without labor, but the miraculous can only be accomplished by labor, and not only laboring but laboring with God. The fact that the people recognized that Jonathan labored with God shows that they knew God was involved. People ought to be able to look at a believer and see the works they are doing and say that they are laboring with God. This is what they said about the apostles when they said in Acts 4:13, they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. You can search the Scriptures and find that anyone who labored or wrought with God saw great results. Let me point out several observations about laboring with God.
First, laboring apart from God is a sure way to minimize the results of labor’s efforts. There is profit in all labor, but there is more profit in laboring with God. If the verse above would have said that Jonathan wrought, he likely would have wrought in vain. Certainly, anybody that works will find that working accomplishes things, but to labor apart from God is to waste the potential of what my labors could accomplish if I labored with God. Laboring apart from God is a wasting time and energy. I would rather dig a ditch with God than dig it without Him. I would rather be a bank teller and do my duties as a bank teller with God than to do them without Him. If I were a mechanic, I would rather work on a car with God than work on it without God. Whatever your daily job is, it is better to labor with God than to do it apart from God, because with Him allows me to accomplish more.
Second, laboring with God does not make the work easy. It was not easy for Jonathan to fight this battle, and laboring with God does not mean that work will be easy. Work takes effort and energy, and to think that laboring with God will mean I won't have to do anything hard is not true. Work is work no matter how you do it; however, laboring with God can make the work’s result come much easier.
Third, laboring with God makes the result of the labor greater. You can work alone and get your results, or you can work with God and get His greater results. Think about this; if you work with God, you are working with the source of all wisdom; therefore, working with God allows you to maximize your efforts and labors.
Fourth, laboring with God ought to be a daily accomplishment. Jonathan wrought with God this day. Never let one day go by without asking God to help you as you labor that day. This is the secret to making the most of your daily labor. Pray and ask God to work with you before you start your day of labor. Pray and ask God to work with you and give you His wisdom before you start each task. If you will work with God, you will be more careful to do it right, and you will find that working together with God will accomplish more.
Comments