by David Brenneman
Life Principle 4: The awareness of God’s presence energizes us for our work.
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).
Do I mean that your mundane job is also the Lord’s work? Yes! Ministry is not just what you do at church. You worship God every day of the week—on Sunday, you do so in church; on Monday through Friday, you show your devotion to Him by doing a good job at work. Your exalted status as a child of God dignifies your labor, and your office or place of employment should be better off because you are there.
You serve the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 3:24). Do you have a good testimony in the marketplace for Him? Are you one of your company’s most faithful employees because you serve God? Does your attitude reflect the joy you have in considering Him the real CEO? If so, then you are truly getting the most out of your work.
- Life Principles Study through the Bible App by Dr. Charles Stanley.
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth." Matthew 6:24.
We need to remember to take what Jesus said, as well as the thoughts of Dr. Stanley and make them a filter with which we live our lives.
Our culture as for many generations segregated the Christian Life from the rest of how life is lived. They do their duty by being in Church on a Sunday Morning and are living life as they see fit outside of that. Their mouth declares what's going on in their hearts.
This shouldn't be for Christians. There should be no living life separate from God's intended will for them.
A glaring thought is this: why do so many Believer's struggle to have a quiet time with Jesus? Why do they struggle with that...yet have no trouble sitting down to hours of staring at a television screen or a tablet or a phone?
It's because we cannot serve two masters. Jesus said it and we prove it in our lives.
We prove it by what comes out of our mouths...even in supposed 'fun' we show what's going on in our hearts by what comes out of our mouth. If we are tearing people down 'in fun' then it's not fun at all in the eyes of God. It's working towards destroying your testimony of a person who's supposed to be living in the character of Christ.
When we give in to the desires of our hearts without first checking them to see if they are right in God's eyes...then we're not doing 2 Corinthians 10:5 "We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.".
Dr. Stanley also points out the grave mistakes Christian's make in compartmentalizing their lives.
We should never have the attitude of when we leave Church that school's out and now we can run off to do what we really wanted to do. We should not shut people out of our lives because our desires come first. We should not love the world nor the things of this world as the Bible commands us.
We also ought to realize that idolatry has never left mankind. It's absolutely NOT just something that was in days gone by. Idolatry is anything that is in the lives of anyone that's taken the rightful place of Jesus. Oh we can and will lie to ourselves as to what we have put in His place. We can and will because mankind has done so for thousands and thousands of years.
That's the struggle of the human life and will be until the Final Judgement of God concerning mankind.
Take a deeper look at the lives of the Disciples. While many had wives and family, they left everything to follow Jesus. They had to trust God to take care of the rest while they learned from Jesus. Learning from Jesus was their everything. They didn't get caught up in anything else...and when those things tried to get into the picture...we get lessons about why they shouldn't be in the Gospels.
We eventually are giving what belongs to God to other things when we're not setting our hearts and minds on what God's wanting to do in our lives.
Colossians 3:23-24 starts out with "Whatever you do", which means from the moment you open your eyes for the new day. It bears the same definition as "everything". This follows up with "do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people". Which means what words come out of your mouth, the things you do with your hands, are to glorify God in Christ Jesus.
Scripture teaches us to bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ...are people going to WANT you helping them when they hear some of the things that have come out of your mouth?
We are taught by the same Scriptures to: "Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things." in Philippians 4:8.
Is cutting people down for any reason obeying that Scripture?
Is saying something that is supposed to be 'in fun' obeying that Scripture?
Is following the crowd in what they're saying and doing obeying that Scripture?
All aspects of our life are to be lived in Christ Jesus. All areas in all things. To this point Jesus said that EVERY careless word we will what? "But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgement. For by your words you will be justified, by your words you will be condemned." Matthew 12:36.
We're to take care of what we listen to as well. Luke 8:18. "So take care how you listen".
Jesus said that what comes out of the heart is what defiles a man. So what are you putting into yours?
Before you rush into 2026...take a good look at what you're doing and how you're doing and what you're listening to. Are you living your life in Christ as as 24/7 365 day life or do you only give Jesus a few hours on a Sunday and maybe a few minutes throughout the week?
Do we represent Jesus well as Ambassador's of Christ or not?
Ask Jesus to examine your heart and show you the truth.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
(C) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.
A corporation not for profit.
La Habra, CA All rights reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment