A lot of times we don’t want to work, unless it’s something fun like gardening, music or cooking bacon.
The technical definition of work is ‘to do stuff’. God created us to do stuff.
Unlike a plant that just sits there and says, “Sunlight, come to me, water come to me, while I sit here doing nothing like character development in a Michael Bay movie.”
God created us to glorify Him, enjoy Him and enjoy His gifts. He created us with no needs (food, shelter, medical), but also with the intent ‘to do stuff’ like take care of the earth, set up a culture and civilization that enjoyed Him and His gifts. A civilization that enjoyed God and His gifts would have stuff to do like planting, harvesting, transporting, preparing food. Creating music, architecture and the sciences. And it would have all been much how like many people today love gardening, creating music, or designing a beautiful park.
So why did God create us ‘to do stuff’, to work? So we could more fully enjoy Him and His gifts. But where things got messed up is with sin – because sin brings death. So now we die. And to not die we now have needs we never had before: food, shelter and health. So hours we spent before in the enjoyment of God and His gifts are now spent trying not to die.
Because of sin, the once abundant food is hard to get – so we have work long and hard work to pay for food, to pay for shelter and to pay for medical stuff. But just because there’s sin doesn’t mean that we throw out God’s original work. God still wants us to enjoy Him, His gifts and to set up a culture that does that – which we call the Kingdom of God. So whatever job you have, if you want to fulfill God’s design for work it must ultimately seek to support the expansion of the glorifying God, the enjoyment of God and His gifts – which really is expanding the Kingdom of God. This start first at home, and then spreads out from there.
1 Tim 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.
So what do I do now? To fulfill God’s design of work, look at how you budget your time and money from your work and see how you can do these things: Support your Family
- Are you managing your finances where you are providing for your family’s present needs, and are preparing for their future needs?
- Are you leading them into a closer relationship with God and helping them to be more Christ-like
- If you are a kid or unmarried, how are you preparing to support your future family?
Support The Kingdom of God (2 Cor 9:6-15)
- Are you faithfully supporting your local church?
- Are you supporting ministries?
- Are you providing for the needy?
Go through those elements and see what adjustments you can make in time or finances. Remember, we don’t work because it’s fun. For many of us it’s hard. We work because we want to support the enjoyment of God and His gifts – the greatest of which is His Son Jesus Christ.
Today’s Passage: Eph 6:5-8 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.
Take Time to Pray: Pray for wisdom to know how to best budget your time and finances to support the Kingdom of God.
Today’s Fruit of the Spirit: Faithfulness