“I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.”
Revelation 2:19 (NIV)
God sees something in each of us, whether it is our faith, our endurance, or our undiscovered talents and gifts. Some people have a gift of prayer intercession, some have hospitality gifts to make others feel welcome, and some have gifts to encourage others in their faith. Whatever gifts the Spirit has given us, were meant to edify and build each other up in the faith. It’s how God intended His church to work. Those gifts within us, work through the power of the Holy Spirit, and sometimes we may not even be aware of them until later in life.
What does Jesus mean in saying in today’s scripture verse, that our last works are greater than the first? Looking at many people’s stories in scripture can help us to better understand those words.
So many people in biblical history either began as unknowns or were headed at first in a wrong direction. Some were hidden from the public eye, and their best work and calling came about decades later in their life.
Starting with Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem, safely hidden from King Herod, lived in Egypt for a time, and was quietly raised in the small town of Nazareth. He was unknown until the age of 30 when his ministry began, and the world has never been the same, since.
David spent his early years out in the fields, isolated from the rest of his family. He was the youngest brother, a teenage shepherd, who was ordered to tend his father’s flock until the day he was called and chosen to be the King of Israel, and to tend God’s flock instead.
Samuel was promised to God by Hannah, his mother, and brought to the temple, after he was fully weaned. Although he was dedicated from his birth, he had to wait until he grew to adulthood, to fill the priestly position he was called and destined for.
Moses ran away from the Egyptian palace where he was raised, and chose to live a private simple life tending sheep, until the day he received God’s call from a burning bush, telling him to go save and liberate His chosen people. He was 80 years old when God called him to be a deliverer of His people.
Joseph, who was mistreated by his envious brothers, was abandoned as a youth, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and jailed. He was an example of steadfast reliance on God, during years of mistreatment. Twenty years later, he was elevated to the role of governor over Egypt, becoming second in command to Pharaoh.
Paul, known as St. Paul to many, was once known as Rabbi Saul. He was educated in a Jewish tradition, and became a murderous hater of the Christian faith, until he was in his 30’s, and had a dramatic conversion. Since then, his zeal was redirected towards his love for Christ and he brought the gospel to the world as a Christian missionary. He wrote most of the New Testament and died as a martyr for the faith.
These stories in scripture tell us that whatever our age is, it’s possible that we haven’t realized our fullest potential yet. Our best is yet to come. Every trial we go through has made us more resilient, and the gifts that previously lied dormant within us have been refined for days to come.
Whatever our age is, God wants us to flourish, not merely survive. Retirement is not a time to stop growing, it’s a time to discover what the Spirit has been developing within us over the years. Isaiah wrote,
“Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 54.19)
The new thing began at Pentecost, and it keeps evolving. It is evolving in the church as a whole, but also in each believer. The Holy Spirit never stops working on a new thing within us, as long as we are living.
These are the days to think and pray about what our role is, in being a part of God’s “best for last” plan.
Lord, show us how you have saved the best for last, and help us to flourish spiritually, rather than merely survive as we discover the gifts you have refined in us. Amen