Whistle while you work!
First Love – Inspiring others to fall in love with Jesus
Whistle while you work!
Don’t just do what you have to do to get by, but work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God. Ephesians 6v6.
I happened to catch a woman being interviewed on a TV show last night and I was really surprised as I listened to her talk about her employment. With a beaming smile she told the host that she “loved her job”. I found this really refreshing as I haven’t encountered many folk who speak so favourably about their work. Maybe it’s just me, however I tend to hear complaints of long hours, unreasonable shifts, bullying bosses and poor rates of pay.
What about you, do you enjoy your job? Whether you are living out your dream job or not, I am sure there will be days when the motivation and determination is just not there, perhaps due to a lack of energy, stress and maybe even ill health. It’s on days like these that it can be hard. We begin to question - “Why am I here?” and “What am I doing?” Our thoughts soon become negative and we may even begin to compare ourselves to others - “Why can’t I have her job?”
Maybe you have a boss that is just impossible to please. No matter how hard you work, they still seem dissatisfied or just expect more. Paul’s words in today’s verse in Ephesians is an interesting one as it turns our attention away from pleasing man, or in this case our boss or our colleagues, and onto pleasing God instead. I don’t know about you but that immediately changes my outlook. We don’t need to try our best for this world or strive to please our fellow man. Instead we should fix our eyes on our heavenly boss, worship him and he will bless us with all we need for the task at hand.
That’s not to say we are to slack off at work, in fact scripture commands us not to do that (Proverbs 18v9). Instead, as our scripture in Ephesians reminds us, we are to work hard as its God we are ultimately serving. There will be times when our work gets us down, I am sure there were days when Jesus felt this way too. In fact we read in scripture of a very dark day when Jesus asked his heavenly boss if there was any other way possible of doing what had to be done in the garden of Gethsemane (luke22v42). But ultimately Jesus knew that God’s will for his life, and for all mankind, was greater than his desires and he submitted to God.
So whatever it is you do, teacher, domestic engineer, tradesman or office worker, submit to God as “good work will get you good pay from the Master, regardless of whether you are slave or free”. Ephesians 6 Verse 7
Until next time
Debbie
