How to Turn Your Job from Dread to Joy
Eph 6:5-8 Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
How have you started your Monday, Christian? Have you fallen in the rut of joy on Sunday and misery on Monday through Friday? Let us deal with this now, for it is a great portion of our life that we spend at our place of employment. Work is the perfect and divine plan of our Heavenly Father. It is a necessary means for all men whether they be saved or lost. It is curious why so many Christians spend such little time in maintaining a part of their life that they spend so much time involving themselves in. Even so, let us think of this though, work does not have to be a dreadful thing we despise upon waking every day. It is well spoken to say there will be days in which we may be worn, sick, or stressed with a special burden, and in these rest is well desired. However, the child of God need not attend every day in despair and drudgery for the desire of God to His people is great joy and labor a part of His plan. What example have we in this Biblically? There is creation; God worked and rested on the Sabbath. It is God who planted a garden in Eden, and it was Adam who was placed there to attend to it. Ponder this thought today, Christian: Adam was instructed to keep the garden (Gen 2:8) before the curse of sin. So we see then work is not the curse, but rather thorns and the sweat of the brow from hard labor are man's curse. For our sake was the ground cursed, for our own good God did this. It was urgent that man stay busy and not idle considering the temptation of satan. Oh wicked man that I am to view work, the plan of God, as a burden, for His commandments are not those that cause grief! It is the fallen nature in us that causes us to view all things spiritual as dreadful, and work is in no way different. We are not to say a person who has labored long and hard will not thirst for the rest his body needs at the quiting hour. Rather it is the attitude of how we view the idea of work that the people of God need to address. How is your spirit today, Saint, in the work place? Shall you say it holds up well in pleasing God? Work is a means to provide for ourselves. We labor (Prov 16:26) because we have a need in life. Food must be gathered and bills must be paid. It is our duty to meet our needs by work, and as well the needs of others who cannot labor (Eph 4:28). It is a godly thing to help those who cannot help themselves, and it should be our joy and pleasure to do so. May we discern this wisely, for if they are well and able to work, it is a sin to even feed such a one in a time of hunger because of their idleness (2 Thess 2:10)! If we do not support them and their lack of self motivation (that is not to say we do not try to win them and disciple them), then it will be very soon that they will find a job. God's people must not think it a righteous thing to support the lazy, though it is our joy to support the truly disabled.
Christian, now observe these principles and from them serve in joy at your place of employment. See our text: If God has graced your life with a job given to you by His eternal hand, stay in this blessing. In doing so, you are acting in a part of the will of God for your life. "What of the most mundane of jobs?" you may ask. Even they, from arrival to departure, are placing you where God would have you be at that time, so as long as you are not there on the Lord's day. Your employer, Christian, is commanded of God to regard such a day for you, and if they do not, bring it to God, and He will plead your cause! Every day is a God-given opportunity! Truly, in each day there lies the grandest of opportunities to please God and show Christ to others around us. Working hard is pleasing in the eyes of God, and a great example to those who see us daily. What a perfect stage God has set for us to perform work willingly in our place of labor. Tell me now, Saint, have you submitted to the proper things of work as Christ became obedient and submitted unto the cross? Is your labor as such that others know you are dependable and productive? Have you shown a good report to all by arriving at the appointed time to start the day? Have you separated yourselves from the filthiness of dirty talk and gossip about others? Do you steal a great amount of time from your employer by dealing with the slack hand of slothfulness? Do you support openly your boss, or do you join in talk of how they govern poorly when the notion is undeserving? Do you answer your employer in anger or gentle submission? We should always yield unless the thing submitted would disobey God in its action, for we ought to obey God rather than man. Temper yourself now to muse on this wise: if work be the will of God, then we must presume doing the will of God earns us eternal rewards. What a perspective altering thought! our labor in the week to come shall earn us Heavenly rewards! This is a double blessing to the Saints, nay rather a triple blessing! If we grace our place of employment Spirit-filled we have entered it with great joy, earned payment for our labor, and gained eternal rewards! May we now think even more positively of work! Work is a gift of God to man, and great rewards and privileges may we earn thereby!
