Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — 4.1MB)
Have you ever had an opportunity to preach the gospel where you work? If you are in a secular workplace, I seriously doubt it! So, then, how can a Christian effectively share God’s love where they work? I’m sharing ten suggestions that all of us can do as a way to become the Bible that people read, the living Word of God on our jobs. Here are suggestions three and four:
3. Go through your schedule for each day and pray for the people you know you will interact with.
I know that many of you are facing added stress and pressure on your jobs these days. Seems like there’s more workload for fewer people, and I hear from many of you that you’re expected to do more than you can get done in a day’s time. This kind of environment can easily cause interpersonal problems with co-workers.
So, pray in advance for the people you will interact with. Remember, no one is in your life by accident, so even that difficult co-worker can be changed by God’s love. Ask God to give you wisdom in how best to deal with the difficult people on your job. Ask him to help you see them the way he sees them, and to give you a loving attitude toward them. Remember, you don’t have to like someone to show them God’s love.
You could easily do this as you commute to work. Make it a daily practice to pray through your day before it starts, and you will discover that God supplies strength and ideas and help to get you through the day with a loving and kind attitude toward the people you encounter.
4. Plan acts of kindness.
In 2 Timothy 2:24 we read, “And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.” If you are a servant of Jesus Christ, your calling is to be kind to everyone—everyone! I think we have to remember to be kind, don’t you? I mean, you can just get so busy, trying to do your job and keep all your balls in the air, that you forget to do the kind things that matter to people. Here are two easy suggestions:
Send cards at appropriate times. You could find out the birth dates of your co-workers, put them on your calendar, and then simply send a birthday card, even an email card would be fine.
Celebrate significant events in the lives of co-workers—like promotions, or graduations, or marriages and anniversaries. It doesn’t take much effort to bring in some goodies and have a small celebration, and it truly is meaningful. But you have to plan those acts of kindness and be intentional about them.