May the favor of the Lord our God rest on
us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:17)
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands. (Psalm 90:17)
Work
and favor do not seem to go hand in hand.
Labor Day and freedom from work, now that sounds like favor!
Not
it God’s sight! Our work is a gift from
heaven. When we work—whether missionary
work, church work, serving professions, or managing a warehouse; we are living
our God’s call on our lives. We are
demonstrating that we are formed in the image of God. The first image God shows us of Himself is of
a worker—when he created the world and pronounced it good.
We
can even go as far to say that our work is part of our worship experience. Work is our weekly opportunity to live out
what we take in from our daily reading in the word and our weekly worship
experiences. We work so that we can live
out the gospel in our lives by caring for the poor, supporting the full time
Christian workers like missionaries and pastors, and caring for our own
families. Our work should be a
reflection of our relationship with God even in workplaces that have strict
policies against talking about God. Our
workplaces become a place of worship when we focus on God’s purposes for using
us to light up the world.
Work
becomes an idol when we live for the reward of our boss or look to our paystub
to gain a sense of our value. We get
confused when we work for compensation or approval of man. When we work for the Lord’s reward we feel
challenged to do the things that we don’t want to do. We lament to God and find His strength to
carry out unreasonable requests at work.
We see irritating coworkers as challenges to develop perseverance,
patience and love.
We
welcome Labor Day Holiday as an opportunity to sleep in and reflect on our
place in the world. We have time for fun
or organizing or resting. Rest is part
of the rhythm God gave us about work right from the beginning (Genesis
2:1-4).
God
did not create the garden in Eden until there was a man to work that garden
(Genesis 2:5). He created us to become
the managers of His creation (Genesis 1:27).
God provided us the food in the garden, and then he invited us to work
in sharing with His work. Mark Roberts
points out that before the fall God did not say: Go to church; rather He said, Go
to work.[i] Our work is our
worship. Our work is an opportunity to
rely on God for the wisdom to do our work and the love to respond to our
co-workers.
May
the Lord establish the work of your hands—may you see the favor of the Lord in
your work!
Copyright © 2013. Deborah R. Newman www.teatimeforyoursoul.com All Rights Reserved.
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