Are you working hard or hardly working?

Does your answer depend on what you are working? God’s Word seems pretty clear on the concept of work.

We could never work hard enough to be good enough to earn salvation from the holy God. God’s mercy allows us the gift of salvation through Jesus’ sacrificial death and the power of his resurrection. Paul’s words in Philippians remind us, though, to work out our salvation – to continue growing in faith and obedience. Training for godliness takes effort on our part. As we submit to God – which is a choice we make, the Holy Spirit works in us to bring about the fruit from obedience to Christ.

Work is a gift from God. God worked in creating the world, he works in our lives, and he made us in his image. God gives us physical goods to steward, people to care for, jobs to run, chores to do….  Remembering that we serve the King of kings puts a different spin on the effort and attitude with which we work! We can find joy in the Lord no matter what work we are doing and what calling he has for us.

We are to work with all our heart at whatever we are doing, remembering that with our lives submitted to Christ, it is the Lord we are serving (Colossians 3:23-24 – letter W in Keep on Track). Coupled with the challenge to do everything without grumbling or arguing (Philippians 2:14 – letter D in Do LAPS!), our thoughts related to our work can be refreshed. With these verses kept in our hearts, the Holy Spirit can bring them to mind so that our work attitude can be honoring to the Lord.

We can have a cheerful attitude, rather than complaining.

We can do our best work, rather than putting forth our least effort.

We can hold in view serving the Lord, rather than just doing a task.

The opposite of working hard is laziness, which accomplishes little and is self-focused. Of course those are not attributes that honor God, and we need to be reminded of that when the temptation is there. Working constantly, however, also does not honor God. If we are always working, other priorities in our life suffer – most notably our relationship with the Lord.

We must be careful to not let our schedule get overloaded and use that as the excuse as to why we do not cherish our time with God each day. It is too easy to rationalize our diminished time in prayer, reading the Bible, and spending time in the Lord’s presence. Instead, we need to make our relationship with the Lord our priority.

Let’s keep working on that!