“Your work will be rewarded” (Jeremiah 31:16)

Often times I laboured without reward. Even what was decided was taken away from me unjustly. Does anyone engage in warfare with his own expenses? Paul the apostle declared. I had to do everything on my own. For the first time in my pastoral experience I have not lodged a single claim for expenses incurred for church work and associated activity? I look to God for my recompense. I look to God alone for my reward and this evening He had spoken. I have been waiting for his Word since early December. Normally I will get a verse from the Lord at the end of the year for the New Year.

I am not sure what I am going to do in 2026. All I know I have to make time to finish volume 2 of the commentary on John’s Gospel. At the end of 2026 I hope to get it published and my work is truly done, my 8th book. 

I yield to the Lord and commit my plans into His hands and He will act (Psalm 37:5). There is nothing planned for the church until the first church council meeting of the year 2026. My hands are tied. For a long time I had this picture in my mind that I am like an eagle with one of its wings bound. You can’t fly with one wing. Even if my two wings spread wide and soar I am not sure others will follow. Who listens to the voice of His servant? Isaiah exclaimed. 

It will be our fourth month without meeting because the last meeting took place in September 2025. Our constitution provides that church council must meet at least once in two months. If we can’t follow our own rules (50 page Constitution) how can we claim to follow God’s Word in our 1,500 page Bible?

We have been reading from the story of Jacob since last October. I sensed most readers did not even know the Genesis story. One person of nearly 40 yo got the names terribly wrong. Praise God he was humble to be corrected during the rehearsal and he read it beautifully the Sunday before. So yesterday in church I spent 4 minutes summarising the Jacob story from Gen 26-28 before I read aloud Gen 29:18-35.