Are You Working For God?
Good Morning Friends,
If you have an ongoing honest conversation with others about what is working and what is not working and what is missing and what is confusing you might discover the importance of God in the process. You see, whatever work you do and where ever you go, the peace of Christ and His life of love can keep you in harmony with one another, for God is the center of it all creation…even the parts of creation you cannot see. It is not always easy, never the less we are to labor for God. We are to work for the God in heaven. Are You Working For God?
Scripture: Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters,
Colossians 3:23 (NRSV)
Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, and we did not eat anyone’s bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you. This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work. Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living. Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 (NRSV)
Message: Our culture has some confusion about work. On the one hand, we have workaholics and on the other extreme are “workabhorics.” And, in the middle, the majority of people today follow the philosophy of the bumper sticker: “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.” In Paul’s letter to the Colossians he writes to the Christians of the town with a purpose of restoring Jesus as the preeminent focus of the work for their lives. He writes about the importance of work with a focus on Jesus. Some of the people of Colossae had begun to put cosmic forces of one sort or another on equal footing with Christ. They were likely influenced by some of the surrounding cultures and teachers of a philosophy. But when it comes to Christ if indeed he is the true man and in Him and His resurrection we are a new creation, then all the other ways are rubbish. It is one or the other unless God is at work redeeming all those other ways to the way of Jesus. Maybe that is why Paul, in this love letter written from jail, is much more gentile in his argument, even though it was clear that the people he was writing to were not centered in Christ. I think of all the world religions and various practices that people have all done in an attempt to find power and purpose…meaning and means. Paul speaks to these issues when he argues with a keen intellect and kind heart that Jesus is the center of creation and salvation… that Jesus serves all the functions necessary… that everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. The message is the same the world over. Christ alone is sufficient. Move out of the shadows and into the substance of living in Christ. There is no need to follow a philosophy that rests on the doctrine of angelic mediators and ritual observance and practices by which men might keep themselves in proper relation to the cosmos. Paul is confident but not arrogant about his claim that Jesus is without peers. Whether slave or free, Jew or Gentile, man or woman, young and old, He is your life. Whether you are in the church or outside the church you can labor for His glory. He makes our work meaningful, He makes our work fun, He makes our work easier, and when we are working for Him, when He is our lives, when we are building His Kingdom, when we are called to His purpose, we become our very best.
Pray learn the worth of the work God would have us do. Pray we realize that only when we let Christ be the focal point, the center of our lives can we avoid worry. Pray we, even through adversity, work faithfully and are concerned first and last to fulfill purpose God has given each of us. Pray we engaged in the heavenly work of worship. Pray the integration of service and work and worship in our lives turns every moment into an opportunity. Pray we realize that God does not want us to be loafers while we wait for the appearing of His Son. Pray we realize that we are to work hard, settle down, and earn our wages and must never tire of doing what is right. Pray we realize that not only are we commanded to work but that work is a gift if we are working for God. Pray we realize that Jesus brings us the peace of His purpose for us when we are working for Him.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 