“WHY I HATE MY JOB…….”
That was a ‘click-bait’ title……..did I get ya?! For the record, I love doing what I do, but there have been seasons in my life when work was difficult and exhausting and I fantasized about selling everything, moving to northern Canada, and living off the land……..anyone else?! It’s in those moments we need to understand all God is accomplishing in us and through us in our work:
1] Work is Worship: [Colossians 3:23] “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,”
In the Old Testament, the word for work and worship [Ex.8:1;34:21] is the same Hebrew word. They are interchangeable in God’s eyes.
2] God is a Worker: [John 5:17] “But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
As Image Bearers of God we have been created ‘like God’ to work. Our job is what we do, but work is a part of the very fabric of who we are.
3] Work is a Witness: [Titus 2:9-10] Teach slaves [workers] to be subject to their masters [boss] in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”
4] Work as Sanctification: [Genesis 3:17] And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;” –
Work becomes toil after the sinful Fall of Adam. God uses toil to teach us to say no to our flesh and yes to Him.
5] Work as Provision: [Ephesians 4:28] “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”
[2 Thessalonians 3:10] “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”