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Thank God it’s Monday! I’m sure you have already said that today, haven’t you? No? Are you more prone to say, “Thank God it’s Friday!”?
Often, we see work as a necessary duty, toilsome and difficult, often unpleasant, frequently boring, but nonetheless essential. Typically, on Monday mornings, as we face a new work week, we’re more likely to be thinking “I’ll be glad when the weekend gets here, and I don’t have to go to work.”
You know, God is the originator of work, and work was a part of his wonderful plan for people.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it (Genesis 2:15).
Adam was given a job as a farmer of sorts, and it was not a secular job; it was a sacred trust from God. Work is God’s perfect plan for people. God meant it to bring purpose and fulfillment to our lives.
How did we get to the “Thank God it’s Friday” attitude? Well, once sin entered the picture through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, everything good God created was corrupted, including work. Sin caused work to be cursed. You’ll find that curse in Genesis 3 where God said to Adam:
Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground … (Genesis 3:17-19).
Paraphrase: You’ll have to work, like you’ve been doing, but now it’s going to be full of difficulties. You’ll earn your living, but the thorns and thistles will make it unpleasant, and it will be painfully toilsome at times.
Maybe that sounds like a description of what you face as you start your work today, whether it’s in a workplace or in your home. But because we, as believers, have been set free from the curse, we can also be set free from this sin-cursed attitude toward work. This week I’m going to try to give you a birds-eye view of the redeemed attitude toward work we should have—and can have—as believers.