Your Work Matters To GodChikamu

YOUR WORK

The Lord has revealed to us that the number one thing we are to do is love the Lord our God with all our heart and to love our neighbor as ourselves. His desire is for us to know Him and the power of His resurrection.

These mandates deal with our relationship with Him. The fruit of this relationship must then result in our glorifying Him by completing the work He has given each of us to do. It will become a by-product of this relationship, not an end in itself.

What is the work God has called you to do? Jesus never did anything the Father had not instructed Him to do. He lived in such communion with the Father that He knew when to turn to the left and when to turn to the right. Is it possible to have such a relationship with our heavenly Father? I think that if it weren’t, He would not have given us such an example.

What has He called you to do? Perhaps you are called to be the best CPA in your city or the best advertising executive or the best office worker or assembly-line person in your company. Whatever work He has called you to do, He will use you as His instrument to accomplish something that He has uniquely prepared you to do. Men and women in the workplace tend to be task oriented. They want to get things done. However, there is a danger in being action-oriented when we seek to accomplish things outside the power of God. Read the following passages and discuss their implications.

Questions

Paul was a “get-things-done” kind of guy. Yet, we discover that there was something even more important than what he did for God. What was that and why do you think Paul felt this was so important?

So often we focus on the “doing” versus the “being” in our calling before God. However, God wants us to know Him intimately, and to know His love for us. The passage, to the right, describes Paul’s prayer that we come to know Christ and His love personally. More than anything else, God wants us to comprehend the deep love He has for each of us. 

What is the relationship between our knowing the love of God, and the works God will do through us based on this knowledge?

What is the danger of doing works that are not founded in His love?

Workplace Application

George Washington Carver lived in the early 1900s. He was credited with more than 300 inventions for marketable products related to the peanut, and more than 100 for the sweet potato. His discoveries transformed the southern economy. Early in the morning Carver would go to his lab and ask God, “Lord, why did you make the peanut?” During those times, God would give him insight into the peanut and sweet potato. He credits His time with God early in the morning as the source of his inspiration and discoveries.

Henry Blackaby, author of Experiencing God, challenged some Fortune 500 CEOs to spend time with God in the early morning. At first, they challenged him, explaining that they were much too busy. However, one man took his advice. Here is what he discovered. “I took you seriously, and I’m getting up at 4 o’clock in the morning. It’s been the greatest time-saver I’ve ever known. Because what God says to me in the early hours shapes the direction of my day; I know what to do and what not to do. I didn’t realize that that meeting with God was the greatest time-saver. I led my first employee to the Lord because God gave me direction, I obeyed, and I began to see Him at work.” 

Your key to having a successful walk with God that bears fruit in your spiritual and professional life is dependent upon how well you know and follow God. Make a priority to spend time with God and you will discover new strategies to succeed in your life and work.