by David Brenneman
"If you're a Christian, Jesus Christ is the supervisor at your place of work—and He not only watches you from afar, He’s right there with you. You and I need to give a full day’s labor, regardless of whether we think management is fair. Jesus is ultimately the One we serve, and He’s always on site. You and I should do our very best because the Holy Spirit is present, equipping, and energizing us.
We make a terrible mistake by segmenting life. We may think that Monday through Friday we go to work, Saturday we play, and Sunday we worship. God has not designed life that way. If Jesus Christ is our Savior, we can’t exclude Him from any part of life. It isn’t right to teach a Sunday school class with everything we have, then meander into work the rest of the week—we must honor and glorify Him in everything we do. It eliminates the temptation of doing our work merely to be seen by men when we commit ourselves wholeheartedly to Jesus (Matt. 6:24)." - From the Devotional 'Life Principle #4 the Awareness of God's presence energizes us for our work." In Touch Ministries, Dr. Charles Stanley.
This is a very powerful perspective on life. It's also very very true. When we read through all that the Lord told Moses to instruct the people of Israel to do in their daily lives we see this played out. We read this spoken of in the New Testament.
So like sheep we are. Worse than a distracted dog by a squirrel. We can be the most distracted of God's creation. We set priorities that aren't truly necessary, we often can set no priorities at all. We can value what shouldn't be and devalue what should be. All the while thinking we're doing nothing wrong.
We can and do set up idols in our lives and merely rename them in order to be comfortable with them being there in spite of our knowledge of God's word concerning them. Sheep.
I am reading an additional book to my current studies with two devotionals and the study Bibles. "A Shepherd's look at Psalm 23" by Phillip Keller". Two chapters in and I highly recommend it.
It's certainly giving me a better perspective and understanding of "we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned our own way".
As Dr. Stanley said, we often segment our lives, not considering where Jesus is at all times. Yet as well we can read from the Shepherd's perspective He’s everywhere we go because He cares for us.
Our Great Shepherd in our lives never sleeps nor slumbers. His eyes are on us continually. He's aware of our distractiveness.
In everything, through everything, He’s there. When we read of "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.", that part of God is faithful means that He's fully aware, is fully there to see us through it, whatever it is.
From the big things in life to the small, He's there. Supervising our steps. Ever watchful.
It's therefore all the more important to keep our eyes on our Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve." Colossians 3:23-24.
Your work isn't simply your 40 or so hour week given to an employer. Your work is also every other waking moment of your life. "Whatever you do, do it for Me".
Being a busy body isn't good either. Being busy for the sake of being busy without real purpose.
Jesus was never busy for the sake of being busy. His priority daily was to seek His Father's will for His day in front of Him.
We certainly also have a culture of telling people we need our "me time". We're experts on this. Thinking we can grab our keys and wallet, head for the door and essentially tell Jesus we'll be back later.
That's what everyone does when we run out into life without taking care to stay where our Shepherd is. Where He is is where our protection is. Where He is is where our provision is. Where He is is where our rest is. Where He is...is where our worship is to be.
The sheep that hear His voice are who we are to be. The sheep that obey His voice we are to be.
Worship and obedience doesn't have a clock to watch. We put value on things in our lives that don't matter at all in light of eternity.
If I have discovered anything from the last 5 months and 6 days is that I regret not following this path of study decades ago.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.
Learn from your Shepherd.
I find that I don't miss what I thought I would. There is a certain kind of peace that comes in being intentional in being at Jesus's feet.
A peace that passes all understanding. The peace of obedient sheep with their Great Shepherd.
You can go on with life trying to keep Jesus in some parts of your life and not others. But you will find that doesn't work. As that shepherd in the book pointed out, sometimes a shepherd has to remove a sheep in order to assure the obedience of the other sheep. You don't want to be that particular sheep.
The choice is yours to make. Nobody gets very far in this life not staying focused on Christ Jesus our Great Shepherd. Nobody truly succeeds in life by keeping Him out of theirs.
All New American Standard Bible Scripture Excerpts used by permission. (C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. A corporation not for profit.
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