Work is Good
Work is often a negative word in our culture. We wake up on Monday mornings and dread that we have to go to work, and our kids dread that they have to go to school. Our entire culture is shaped around the idea that work is bad, when in fact that is a lie. Work is not a bad thing. Work is good. Work is something that God has called and made humans to do. I hope that this short devotion on work will help you and your children see work as a positive.
1. God works! (Genesis 1:1, Genesis 3:21)
1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
Work is something that God delights to do (Psalm 74:13-17).
74:13 It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. 14 It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert. 15 It was you who opened up springs and streams; you dried up the ever-flowing rivers. 16 The day is yours, and yours also the night; you established the sun and moon. 17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth; you made both summer and winter.
2. Work is a gift from God (Genesis 2:15)
2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
There was work before the fall! It was a gift of God for humanity! Work is still a gift! (Deuteronomy 5:33)
5:33 Walk in obedience to all that the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.
3. Work has been marred by the fall (Genesis 3:16-19)
3:16 To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” 17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
God is the one who has now cursed work. He knows your work is frustrating and he also gifts you satisfaction in your work (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13).
3:12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.
4. Your Work is ordained by God (Colossians 3:23-24)
3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.
That means you are called by God (gifted and specially set aside) in your work (Proverbs 16:3).
16:3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.
As you work today, this week, this contract, in this position, give yourself in such a way that your effort & execution is an answer to the question “what would Jesus be like if he worked this job?”.