I think there is a general misconception, well at least for me, there was a misconception about what role God played in my life and what He cared about. I knew He cared for my heart and everything that helps me take part in church and serving there. However, I never gave much thought to my work life and academics and what role God has to play there. I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that God is concerned about my career and the work that I do.
God is not only concerned about the time I have for Him, but He is also concerned about what I use the rest of the time that I have. When the Israelites were in captivity, they had no say in how they spent their time. They were slaves and their slave masters dictated what they did with their time. However, when God set them free from slavery, He also redeemed their time too. Whilst they still had to work to eat, they yielded the full benefits of their work. They also could rest and take part in other recreational activities too. In a sense, their rest also honored God as it showed that they were not bound to their work: they trusted God as their provider and knew that it was not their efforts that yielded their reward but it was God who rewarded them.
Fast forward to the 21st century: the kind of work we do may have changed but what God thinks about it has not changed
- God instituted work: work began with God. When God made the earth, that was work and God continues to work now. Before the fall of man, Adam received work from God. [Genesis 2 vs 15-17]. God created the environment and setting, and He placed Adam where he was to work. As much as sin has tainted the world, I think that when we have new life in Christ and we are reconciled to the Father, we are now able to do the good works that God has prepared for us to take part in beforehand [Ephesians 2:10].
- Work was not supposed to be hard: Work existed before pain did. [Gen 3 vs 17-19] When the fall of man happened, work became much difficult as the ground was now cursed. Work became more unpredictable and the yield was not guaranteed. We see this nowadays where someone can work on something and yield no profit. Therefore, we need God’s wisdom and guidance so that He can position us to be in a place where the work we do will yield a return.
- God wants us to succeed: Believe it or not, God wants us to succeed more than we want to succeed. When we succeed, relative to what God has put us here to do, God received the glory. I believe that God has put in each of us skills, gifts, and talents through which we can work with and receive profit.
- There is nothing Godly or admirable about being lazy: the book of proverbs reiterates repeatedly that laziness leads to poverty. ( Proverbs 6 vs. 6-11; Proverbs 12 vs. 11; Prov 12 vs. 24; Prov 13 vs. 4.) In addition to that, if you have a poor work ethic, your effectiveness in the kingdom of God will also be limited.
In a nutshell, we have work to do. God has given us talents and time that we are to steward, and we will give an account to him of how we put our time and our talent to use. There is always the temptation to be idle and we need to be vigilant and watch out for that.
Be strong, work hard, and may God bless the fruit of your hands!
Mukundi 