‘-Part II-
Why are you in the job you are in? Would you say:
- Because I have to earn a living!
- Because my job is secure and I’ve got lots of time in it.
- Because I’m fearful of trying to find another job, even though I don’t like the job I have.
- Because I need the recognition and good self-esteem that comes from my career.
- Because I want to make a lot of money and rise to a position of power.
First, let me remind you that you don’t have safety and security in any job, I don’t care how many years you’ve been there, how much money you make, how good your benefits are, or how much retirement you will get. No employer offers you guaranteed security, not even the government.
Only in the Lord do we have true security:
Psalm 4:8: In peace I will lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
Proverbs 18:10: The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.
Is fear of your own safety or security keeping you from doing what God wants you to do? Maybe God wants you to take another job, one that doesn’t pay as much, so you’ll have more time for other priorities, but you’ve been afraid to do that. I’ve been there and done that, so I know how easy it is to do.
Search your heart and ask yourself if you are doing the work God has assigned you to do.
God’s original plan for work was good, but like everything else, sin brought its curse on work and that has made work a dirty word, so to speak. It’s often something we don’t want to do or we dread. But the good news is, we can go back to God’s original plan for work if we bring the Kingdom of God to our jobs!
We pray: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Why did Jesus teach us to pray that way? Because he wants us to learn this principle, that we can have the kingdom of God in any area of our lives where we give God complete rule and we commit ourselves to doing his will here on this earth, just like it’s done in heaven.
God’s Kingdom is any sphere in which, at any given time, his rule is acknowledged. Therefore, when you give God rule over you, you are his Kingdom. And when you are the Kingdom of God, you carry that Kingdom with you to work every day. And when you carry the Kingdom of God to work with you every day, you sanctify that workplace and you redeem it from the curse of work.
I know– the people you work with and the company you work for probably don’t recognize God’s sovereignty. But if you will daily recognize the sovereignty of God over your life, over your job, over your workplace, you can still know freedom from the curse of work, because your spirit will be free regardless of what goes on around you
How We Can Bring the Kingdom to Work Everyday
As believers in Jesus Christ, we can demonstrate his transforming power by our attitudes toward work, because since we’ve been set free from the curse of the law through faith in Jesus Christ, we may have to work in a corrupted environment, but we don’t have to be corrupted by it. We can stand out in that crowd as a bright light of hope by demonstrating a transformed attitude toward our work.
The only way that your workplace will be changed is when the individual hearts of people are changed. And God may have you there for that very reason— to help some of those people see their need for God through the way you work. Pretty exciting, don’t you think?
My challenge to you is to make a decision that you are going to reclaim your workplace, your job, for Christ. Here’s how we do that:
Work for the Lord, not for people.
Colossians 3:23: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.
Change employers. Every day before you get to your job, repeat out loud something like this:
Today I work for Jesus. I will be accountable to him for my performance, my attitude, and my relationships with those I work with and for. Therefore, I will keep this thought in my mind all day long, and regardless of what is going on around me, I will take the Kingdom of God to my job today as I let God have complete rule in my life on my job this day.
Put Colossians 3:23 on your screen saver. Type it on a card and stick in on your desk where you can see it all day. Learn to practice this simple directive and you will make your job a place where you are doing God’s work.
Do your work well.
Ecclesiastes 9:10: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. .
Perform the duties of your job with excellence, thoroughness, dependability, accuracy and extra-mile effort. Remember, you are working for the Lord, not man, and he will reward your good work effort. Besides, he deserves the best.
Overflow with thankfulness.
1 Thessalonians 5:18: Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 2:6-7: So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
If you and I overflowed with thankfulness, we would bring the Kingdom of God to our jobs in amazing ways. It would end our negativity; we wouldn’t be jealous of others; we would be joyful, attractive people; we would have more energy and less stress; we wouldn’t compare ourselves or our lives to others.
Become an ambassador for Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:20: We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
An ambassador, according to Webster, is a person sent by one sovereign to another as its resident representative.
If you go to your job each day as an ambassador for the sovereign God, the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be the resident representative on your job for God. And through you God can make his appeal to those in your marketplace to be reconciled to God.
How does that happen? Not through sermons preached, but through a life lived. Not through condemnation or judgment of the corruption around you, but through compassion and love and caring and integrity of life.
Recently I told the story of how my friend, Janet, came to know Jesus because of one of her co-workers, a man who lived joyfully and kindly in the midst of a very high-stress, competitive, political environment. He brought the Kingdom to work every day because Jesus was his King and it showed. He was an ambassador for Jesus on that job, and his life made Janet want to know what made him different.
You may not be aware of how God is using you to make his appeal through you. Often when we are living out our role as ambassadors, we are not aware of how God is using us. But you don’t have to worry about how you are received as an ambassador. You just go to that job each day focused on your role as Christ’s ambassador, and believe me, God will make his appeal through you, in many different ways.
By practicing these four simple Bible principles (simple, not always easy), you will redeem your workplace for Jesus. Those principles are: Work for the Lord, not people, do your work well, overflow with thankfulness, and be an ambassador for Jesus Christ where you work. Whether the people around you ever change, you still can have the joy and privilege of working with God as his coworker. You will enjoy the original purpose of work as God intended it, because you have been set free from the curse of work, through Jesus.