Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — 4.1MB)
PROGRAM D-7238
How do you evaluate whether a job is a good one for you or not? Do you evaluate a job by its payday—by how much money it pays you? If jobs are valued by paychecks, then a lot of very important jobs would have to be reduced in value. I think you will agree with me that our pay scale is really out of whack in our culture. We pay incredible amounts of money to someone who can dunk a basketball, and often inadequate amounts for people who teach our children.
How does God value work? He values it by its contribution not by its compensation. Early on in the beginning of this ministry, I had an opportunity to share with a friend this new opportunity that God had given me. Without a biblical perspective, he valued all jobs by the compensation received, and when he learned that at that time there was no personal financial compensation for me, instead of admiring my dedication, he said, “I thought you were smarter than that.”
You can be sure that this world system thinks that a high salary or income equals important work, but for us as followers of Christ, it should not be so. God may lead you to a job that pays less than you could earn somewhere else, but if you are contributing more in that job, helping more people, doing things that really matter, the value of your job is great in the eyes of God. And a part of your compensation package, as it were, will be the rewards you receive in heaven.
Remember the verse from Colossian 3? It says that when we do our work with all our heart as working for the Lord, not for men, then we will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. That’s worth a whole lot more money than a six-figure salary, don’t you think?
Work becomes worship when we are motivated by a desire to please God in our work and when we work for him primarily—to please him and honor him by the way we work, by the effort we give, by the attitude we bring to the job each day. Our work should be a vital part of our worship.