Time For Work

Time for Work

You have six days each week for your ordinary work.

Exodus 20:9

Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not Christians will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

We hear that some of you are living idle lives, refusing to work and meddling in other people’s business. We command such people and urge them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and work to earn their own living.

2 Thessalonians 3:11-12

It is interesting to observe how people respond when they win the lottery. Some of them never go back to work; they see the money as their ticket to a life of ease. Others report for work the next day and keep on working. They recognize that meaningful work is about more than a paycheck.

Did you know working is a very godlike thing to do? We read in Genesis that God worked for six days and then rested on the seventh day. When he made Adam, he immediately gave him a job in the Garden—a job he was perfectly suited for, a job that was fulfilling.

We tend to categorize work into spiritual work, like being a missionary or a minister, and secular work, like being a doctor, an engineer, a salesperson, a teacher, or a student. But to God, all work is a calling from him and has dignity. Martin Luther said, “A dairymaid can milk cows to the glory of God.” We live in a day and age where certain professions are honored above others. (Have you ever seen “Oscars” given out to police officers or lunchroom cooks or accountants?) And yet if you do what you do for the glory of God, it has eternal value in God’s book.

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What jobs or professions have always fascinated you? How could a person do those jobs to the glory of God?

Are there some professions that could never bring glory to God?

Who are some people you know who set a good example of working hard and using their gifts to serve God in their professions?