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God’s Grace in the Workplace
Your job is a legitimate ministry when you serve God there
by Dr. Adrian Rogers
In all labour there is profit: but the talk of
the lips tendeth only to penury. (Proverbs 14:23)
Now, I'm not saying they don't love and serve God, perhaps they
do. But most of these people think the only time they serve God is when they get off
work! They end up giving their prime time to the employer and their leftovers to God!
Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). I call this
split-level living.
What I want you to take from this brief article today is this:
You may think there's nothing exciting about you or your job, but God takes ordinary
people and He gives them extraordinary power to do extraordinary things for His glory!
Your job may be putting hub caps on tires. You may be keying
data at a computer. You may be digging ditches or washing dishes. You may be doing one
of a myriad of what you think are mundane things. But I want to tell you, if you are a
Christian, your work is to be the temple of your devotion and the platform of your
witness. Every Christian is a minister doing full-time Christian service.
The Sacredness of Everyday Work
Your job does not become sacred when you become a minister,
missionary, or a staff member of a Christian organization! Every job, if it is done in
the power of the Holy Spirit, is a sacred job. Every one!
Let's look at someone who lived this out from the Word of God -
his name was Daniel. In the book of Daniel, we learn that he was taken captive by
Nebuchadnezzar and carried to Babylon from Israel. There, he found a secular job as a
government bureaucrat (see Daniel 8:27). The government trained him,
then pressed him into service.
In this ordinary line of work, Daniel served the Lord Jesus.
When Daniel was thrown into the lions' den because he refused to bow to another god,
King Nebuchadnezzar and many others came to believe in our Almighty God.
If you work in the name of Jesus, unto His glory, and in the
power of the Holy Spirit, you will receive the same reward for doing that job that I
receive for doing my job. God knows about you and is watching you. Every Christian,
wherever he serves, is in full-time Christian work.
The Service of Everyday Work
Does work have eternal significance? Daniel may have wondered
the same thing, as he was handling taxation, public relations, law enforcement, building
projects, meetings and diplomacy. But yet he served God continually
(see Daniel 6:16 and 20).
Even the home of Jesus was the cottage of a
workingman. And whether He was mending plows or mending souls, Jesus was doing the work
of God because people need houses to live in and furniture to sit on.
If you know you're serving the Lord, that'll put dignity in
whatever you are doing: running a machine, greasing automobiles, typing letters, carrying
mail, painting houses, digging ditches, cutting yards. Tell the Lord, "I'm doing it for
You! And I'll do it with all my might! As much as any missionary or preacher or
evangelist!" That kind of attitude will put a spring in your step.
Simply said, God wants His people to prosper wherever He plants
them. You are a priest of God, a minister of God, and in full-time Christian service,
and if that doesn't ring your bell, your clapper's broken.
Ephesians 3:20 promises that, "God is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that
worketh in us."
Copyright 2002 by Crosswalk.com, Inc.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
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