Understanding God’s will for your work

Are you in a job that you love and where you are using your strengths? or are you in a job you tolerate?

Maybe you are in a transitional place. Maybe you are looking for work or thinking of changing jobs.

Did you know that most adults spend about half their waking lives at work? Your work is a huge part of God’s plan for your life.

Contrary to what we might think, most of the heroes in the Bible had what we would think of as secular vocations.

John Ortberg in the book The Me I Want to Be says, “Isaac developed real estate, Jacob was a rancher, and Joseph was a government official (in charge of agriculture, the economy, and immigration policy) who served a pharaoh in a foreign land that did not honor Israel’s God. He did not decide he could serve God best by leaving his well-paying government job and starting a nonprofit, faith-based organization to do charity work.”

“Moses spent forty years as a sheep-herder, Esther won a beauty pageant and went into government service, and David worked in animal husbandry, the military, and statecraft.”

“Daniel was an immigrant who attended Babylon’s version of Oxford and became prime minister. Lydia was a successful businesswoman in textiles.

Paul was a tent-maker. Perhaps the ultimate expression of how much God values work is Jesus the carpenter.”

Jesus spent more than three-quarters of his working life in the building profession, fashioning benches and tables and probably involved in construction. The word we translate carpenter comes from the Greek tekton — from which we get our word technology — and would include the ability to do stone or masonry work.

The Bible is a book written by workers about workers for workers, but too often in discussion about spiritual life our work gets ignored. Or all we get are warnings: “not too much,” “not too hard,” or “not too long.”

Here are some principles from God’s word concerning work.

1.       Work is part of the created order and it is good.

Genesis 2:15

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

The term “work” here denotes preparing and tending, and the word “keep” adds to that idea. Since this command comes before Adam sinned, work did not come as a result of sin, nor is it something to be avoided. Productive work is part of God’s good purpose for man in creation.

Some Christians (whether consciously or unconsciously) have the impression that work is a result of the Fall rather than a part of the created order. But Gen 2:15 makes it clear that God placed Adam in the Garden to “work it and keep it” and then created Eve as his helper in the task . This work was part of Adam and Eve’s mandate to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it”. So work is part of who God has made us to be; it is part of the original created order that God designated as “good.”

Therefore we should honor work and see it as good.

2.       Work is difficult because of the fall and rebellion of Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3:17-19

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

So work was good and part of the created order. But because of Adam’s sin and rebellion God cursed the ground. Suddenly work became difficult as the curse altered the created order. Because he had eaten that which was prohibited to him, he will have to struggle to eat in the future. To say that the ground is cursed  and will bring forth thorns and thistles indicates that the abundant productivity that was seen in Eden will no longer be the case. Underlying this judgment is a disruption of the harmonious relationship that originally existed between humans and nature.

It must be reiterated that work is not the result of the Fall; it is the difficulty of work in a fallen world that is emphasized. The punishment is not work itself but rather the hardship and frustration that will accompany our work. So if you ever wonder why you experience frustration and hardship at your job it is because of this curse that resulted from the Fall.

Because of this truth, in any job you will experience hardship and frustration.

3.       There is a pattern of work and rest that is stressed in Scripture.

First, let me say that hard work is given a high premium in Scripture.

We see this high value of work in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul says:

2 Thessalonians 3:10

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.

Paul urges the Thessalonians to continue showing brotherly love and to be financially self-supporting. Some in the church had abandoned gainful employment and are living off the charity of wealthier Christians.

If you are out of work currently, I think you have assurance that you can pray according to God’s will for work. It is God’s will for you to work and he tells us that if we pray according to his will he will hear and answer us.

While God stresses generosity and sharing with those in need, there is no welfare program for those that are capable of working.

In fact the only welfare we see in Scripture was for widows over a certain age that had no family to care for them. For if they had family to care for them it was the family’s responsibility and not the church’s responsibility or the government’s responsibility.

1 Timothy 5:8

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Part of the problem with much of our welfare programs I believe is that it disregards the value and dignity of work for many able bodied people.

My goal is not to stir up a political debate here but to teach what the Bible says about the value and dignity of hard work.

The fourth commandment covers all seven days of the week, not just the Sabbath: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work . . . for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth.”

I have often heard sermons designed to make people feel guilty about not keeping the Sabbath, but I have never heard a sermon designed to make people feel guilty about not honoring the six-day work week. The point is not how many days or hours we are punching the clock. The point is that just as God made and loves the Sabbath, so he also made and loves work.

God establishes the pattern of our work by instructing his people to rest regularly from their work so that they may focus particularly on worshiping him. However one understands the Christian’s responsibility to keep the Sabbath, we can all agree that God enjoins his people to rest regularly from their work.

To keep a healthy balance and perspective about work, we do need to rest.

In Mark 2:27 Jesus taught

And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. “

Jesus emphasizes that man is not to be confined by the Sabbath but rather that the Sabbath is given as a gift to man (for spiritual and physical refreshment).

We need to time each week to rest. You can take this principal of the Sabbath and build patterns of physical and spiritual refreshment into your normal rhythm of life.

I think we must also take into consideration our overall rythym of work and rest.  Because work is valued and good in Scripture some of us can tend to overwork and become a workaholic ignoring the work that needs to be done in our home. Loving our spouses, parenting our kids, and taking care of our home is all a part of our work. We shouldn’t neglect our family and the work required in our homes.

Take vacation time off throughout the year. Whether a staycation or getting away. Take times to get away with your spouse.

You may need to put some boundaries with your work. Shutting down your smartphone and laptop at home in order to engage your family. Set a time you will leave the office. Find healthy boundaries for when work and family collide.

Here are some resources if you struggle with balancing family and work. While valuing hard work we need to set boundaries too as we seek to lead our families.

• Podcast -When work and family collide 
• Book – Choosing to Cheat: Who wins win family and work collide?

4.       God equips you with strengths to complete the work he has called you to do.

 Exodus 31:1-5

The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.

God had called and equipped Bezalel  to work in every craft he had prescribed for the construction of the tabernacle and all its elements.

He was a craftsman, skilled in design. He had an eye for color and a flair for management, so when it was time to build a tabernacle for the people of Israel, he oversaw the job. Imagine being Bezalel. From your youth you love to work with your hands. You don’t know that God is involved in this — but he is!

He has actually placed these desires in you, which will one day bless people around you. When you are working, the joy and power you feel is actually the presence of the Spirit.

“Discover your strengths” is a phrase made famous by Marcus Buckingham and what has been called the “strengths movement.” It calls us to stop focusing on improving weaknesses rather than naming and developing strengths — which also reflects God’s design. God did not say, “Moses, your craftsman skills are weak. Let’s have you stop leading this people for a while, and work on improving your craftsmanship skills.” God’s plan was that the community would be enriched when people were doing what he had created them to do.

Each of us has certain strengths. We were born with them, they will always be our strengths, and we delight in them. Work happens best when we discover these strengths, put them to use, and focus on developing them. Trying to improve our weaknesses is like trying to teach a rabbit to swim or a snail to race. God’s design for work is best when it goes “from strength to strength.” (If you haven’t discovered your strengths yet, the book Now Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton is a great place to start.)

When you are at a place of work where you can use your strengths I think you experience what Dorothy Sayers described: “Work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker’s faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God.”

When we identify and utilize our strengths we can find satisfaction and fulfillment in our work.

5.       The Father has specific work and a mission for you to complete.

Jesus is our example, the author and finisher of our faith.

In John 17 we have a long passage recording the high priestly prayer of Jesus.

In his final prayer, Jesus gives an account of his earthly mission to the Father who sent him.

John 17:4

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

Jesus had specific work to do and a mission to complete that only he could accomplish. As the Son of God who obeyed where both Adam and Israel failed, Christ did everything his Father commanded. The climax of that work was his sacrificial crucifixion, triumphant resurrection, and glorious ascension that accomplished the redemption of his people and inaugurated his reign.

We also have specific work to and a mission to complete. Paul understood this.

In preparation for Paul’s third missionary journey, Acts 20:24 he says

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Later at the end of his life Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Paul is simply saying that he has finally completed the course God ordained for him. He has done, clearly by God’s grace, what he is exhorting Timothy to do and I believe us to do.

You also have a course ordained for you. You have a race to complete by God’s grace. You have a mission to accomplish. You have specific work to do for his kingdom.

See your work as a part of that calling.

6.       All work is to be done for the glory of God.

Work and every aspect of every your life has the potential to honor and glorify God.

Paul reminds of us of this in 1 Corinthians 10:31

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Paul also exhorts his readers to do all work for the Lord.

He is addressing our motivation of why we work and who we work for.  This happens on a heart level.

Colossians 3:22-24

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

When our motivation is right, we are serving Jesus in our work.

If you feel unappreciated in your work, examine your heart and ask who am I working for? Am you working to please people or Jesus.

Think about your work today. If Jesus were your direct supervisor, would you do your work any differently today? How would approach your work if Jesus were checking your work?

View your work as a service to Jesus and do all your work for the glory of God.

7.       The faithfulness and character we show in our current work determines the work entrusted to us in the future.

I think that is true in this life and in the life to come.

Paul explains how our character affects our usefulness by God in this life.

2 Timothy 2:20-21

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

We are being called to depart from doctrinal and moral error in order to prepare us to be useful to the master and ready for every good work.

Using your God-given abilities wisely and productively is a vital aspect of discipleship and will be rewarded with additional opportunities to serve God faithfully and fruitfully.

Sometimes God allows you to go through and experience difficult situations and jobs to help prepare you for the next chapter of your life. It is part of your character development.

Joseph spent time in a pit and then later in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He worked and had responsibility while in prison. This was all part of God’s plan for his life to prepare him for a powerful government job in one of the most powerful countries in the world at his time.

Before David was king he spent a good deal of his time hiding from king Saul. He was on the run constantly as he worked.

Your faithfulness in how you handle work in this life will also affect what is entrusted to you in eternal life.

You see this in the Parable of the talents.

In the parable of the talents, one man gets 5 talents, another 2 talents, and another 1.

The man returns to see how these three men handled his money. Those that were faithful and utilized their gifts and potential were rewarded. Jesus then shares this truth:

Matthew 25:29

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

Jesus was teaching us that Faithful stewardship in this life will result in being given greater responsibility and stewardship in the life to come.

Somebody is looking. Someone is keeping track.

It is worth it. Your faithfulness and character matter and determine what is entrusted to you in the next chapter of your life.

8.       See your place of work as a mission field .

The call to be a Christian was not a call to leave your secular vocation. That’s the clear point of 1 Corinthians 7:17-24. Paul sums up his teaching there with these words: “So, brothers, in whatever condition each was called, there let him remain with God” (verse 24). Paul had a high view of the providence of God—that God had sovereignly “assigned” or “called” unbelievers to positions in life where their conversion would have significant impact for his glory. “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him” (verse 17).

Paul does not mean that changing jobs is wrong in the Christian life—otherwise no one could become a vocational pastor or missionary except very young people (unlike Jesus who changed from carpentry to full-time ministry when he was thirty, Luke 3:23). What Paul does mean is that when we are converted we should not jump to the conclusion, my job must change. Rather our thought should be, God has put me here, and I should now display his worth in this job. As verse 24 says, “there let him remain with God.”

Your work is a primary place — maybe the primary place — where your calling gets lived out. Maybe we should issue robes to electrical engineers, clerical collars to accountants, and vestments to auto mechanics every once in a while just to remind us of this.

Your work place is probably the time when you rub shoulders with the most unbelievers. You have strategically placed around people who need to know about Jesus.

1 Peter 3:15

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect

9.       In the new heavens and new earth God’s people will continue to work.

Revelation 22:3

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

In the final chapter of the Bible, John paints a stunning picture of the new heavens and the new earth. One of the lenses he uses is a new Eden. In that new Eden, God’s people will serve him. This may come as a shock to some Christians who perceive the eternal state as nothing but recreation. Part of what makes the new heavens and the new earth so beautiful is not the absence of work, but the absence of the curse that makes work difficult. Can you imagine being able to serve the Lord without any hindrance from sin, fatigue, frailty, or anything else that limits our ability to serve God?

So how do we find God in our work? How do we allow our work to move us toward the person God wants us to become?

Make the most of your work.

• Ask God to make your work go well today.
•  Continually seek to identify and develop your God given strengths rather than focusing on improving your weaknesses.
•  Take five-minute breaks throughout the day to relax, get refreshed, and ask God for strength to work well.
•  Identify the larger meaning of your work that makes it a calling.
•  Periodically review your attitude and motivation for work.
•  Solicit feedback on how you can grow.
•  Make friends with the people you work with.
•  Seek to enjoy your work.