上帝在工作
約翰福音5:17耶穌就對他們說：「我父做事直到如今，我也做事。」
天父上帝藉著道創造了萬物，現在上帝藉著道，繼續維繫受造物，並會永遠持續他的工作。所有天使和人的能力和智慧都不能維護萬物片刻的時間。 如果不是上帝做事，日月星辰不能在其軌道上運行。 如果不是神的能力，人類不可能生養眾多，撫養兒女；野獸不可能生產小崽，各從己類，正如它們每日所做的一樣。 如果上帝不再做事，太陽不會在它的位置閃耀；孩子不會誕生；沒有穀物、青草；其實地上什麼都不會生長，或者繁衍什麼。 如果永遠做事的造物主和祂的同工（即聖子、聖靈）停下祂們的工作，一切都會在眨眼間毀壞成為廢墟，整個宇宙和內中的一切都會崩潰。 如果上帝不維持祂所創造的萬物，我們老早就會毀滅死去，甚至當我們出生時，或在搖籃時就已經沒有氣息了。——馬丁路德（LW 22:26－27)禱告：天父上帝，祢藉著基督創造並維持一切受造物，求讓我們認識到祢愛的旨意，讓我們一生榮耀祢。奉耶穌基督的名。阿們。
John 5:17 My Father is working still, and I am working.
God the Father initiated and executed the creation of all things through the Word; and now He continues to preserve His creation through the Word, and that forever and ever. He remains with His handiwork until He sees fit to terminate it. For just as we were created by Him without our own aid and agency, so we cannot maintain ourselves with our own might. Hence, as heaven, earth, sun, moon, stars, man, and all living things were created in the beginning through the Word, so they are wonderfully governed and preserved through that Word.
How long, do you suppose, would the sun, the moon, the entire firmament keep to the course maintained for so many thousands of years? Or how would the sun rise or set year after year at the same time in the same place if God, its Creator, did not continue to sustain it daily?
If it were not for the divine power, it would be impossible for mankind to be fruitful and beget children; the beasts could not bring forth their young, each after its own kind, as they do every day; the earth would not be rejuvenated each year, producing a variety of fruit; the ocean would not supply fish—in short, none of the creatures, animals, or plants, could propagate and perpetuate themselves, each after its own kind, as they do every year.
If God were to withdraw His hand, this building and everything in it would collapse. The power and wisdom of all angels and men would not be able to preserve them for a single moment.
The sun would not long retain its position and shine in the heavens; no child would be born; no kernel, no blade of grass, nothing at all would grow on the earth or reproduce itself if God did not work forever and ever.（LW 22:26－27）
