Does God care about my job??

In out last post we discussed how the Bible can be our financial advisor in making investment decisions. It is exciting to see how much practical information is available in God’s Word about how we should invest our money.

But how about our jobs? Does the Bible give us guidelines concerning the proper attitude we, as Christian workers should have towards our jobs and our employer? Does God care about my job and my performance in the workplace? Once again the answer is: absolutely!

First we need to understand God’s view towards work. Too many times we hear (incorrectly) that our work was part of the curse that resulted from the fall. This is wrong. Genesis 2:15 is clear that God created work before sin entered the world. So working has nothing to do with the fall. Work became more difficult as a result of sin (Genesis 3:17-19) but even in a sinless environment, like the Garden of Eden, God provided work for man’s benefit. We need to look at our ability to work and our jobs as part of God’s blessing and not part of the curse.

The second thing we must realize is that God wants us to work. This is part of His plan for our spiritual growth. Exodus 34:21a says “You shall work six days” and 2 Thessalonians 3:10b says “If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat”. Many times God will use our work to develop our character. Sometime read the story of Joseph and see how his character was developed through his work. How many times have we heard of “spoiled rich kids” that never developed solid character traits because everything was handed to them on a silver spoon? God wants us to work so that He can develop our character.

Our jobs also give us the opportunity to put into practice spiritual principles that many times never get further than the Sunday School class where we first heard them. On a daily basis our jobs give us the opportunity to yield our rights and serve others. (Just ask a stay at home mom about this.) Our true Christian convictions can be demonstrated more vividly in the work environment than probably any other setting except family relationships.

God is central in our success and even our paychecks. Look once again at Joseph. Genesis 39:2-5 starts out by saying that “The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man…” The passage goes on to list exactly how successful Joseph was. Psalms 75:6-7 and Deuteronomy 8:17-18 are pretty clear that promotions and raises come from God not from man. How often do we leave God out of our workplace only to realize it is He who is in control of our success?

A keen understanding of the fact that we work for God should eliminate being resentful about the success of others and hurt feeling because of the lack of recognition by our boss. Colossians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men…” This tells us we are working for God and not for man and this can have major implications. If Christ is our boss, shouldn’t that make us a better employee?

Yes, God cares about our jobs job very much. In the Bible times God used fishermen, doctors, shepherds, queens and kings to fulfill His plan on this earth. Today He wants to use stay at home moms, accountants, bricklayers, factory workers, sales people and any other occupation to fulfill His purposes today. Career Vision reports that less than ½ of workers say they are satisfied with their jobs. In light of this statistic, may I suggest that each day before we start to work, we pause and thank God for the privilege of working and ask Him to use our jobs to make us the person He wants us to be?