My Vindication Is with the Lord

April 13

Nobody wants to spin his wheels. There’s not much that can send our frustration threshold through the roof more quickly than the knowledge that we have spent ourselves upon a task or a relationship and the result has been that our effort has meant nothing.

As when we have invested our money in a stock, we have great hope that when we have invested our time and effort into an educational goal or a career plan or a relationship, the resultant interest accrued through the time and effort placed into it will eventually make the outcome a successful and profitable one.

Nothing dismays us to the level as does our misplaced effort. To spend ourselves in futile pursuits is to relegate us to disappointment, dejection, and despair. If we come face-to-face with the reality that our labor has been in vain, we will label ourselves as failures—a concept we endeavor to avoid at all cost. Yet in Isaiah 49:4the prophet comes to the conclusion that he has labored in vain but does not despair.

Isaiah says, “I have spent my strength for nothing but futility…” but he goes on to say, “…yet my vindication is with the Lord.” In the spiritual realm, the success of our endeavor is not always readily discernable. If we know the Lord has given us a task to perform in the behalf of His Kingdom, we must trust its outcome to Him, even if the results we see do not seem to substantiate our investment of time and labor.