All of Our Work Matters to God - Yes, Even That Work

Genesis 2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east…

Mark 6:3  Is not this (Jesus) the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?

Our God is found gardening in Genesis and being a carpenter in the New Testament.  There is no job to small or insignificant for our LORD who is relentlessly laboring.  Any job that is good and honorable is a job for the LORD.  All of God’s creation was made by God to be developed, encouraged and cared for in an endless number of ways through our personal human labor.  This means that every time we engage in any type of labor, including the labor that what we may consider to be trivial household physical labor, we are reflecting God’s image as we work.  He is honored when we mow the grass and redeem that overgrown yard, he is honored when we clean out the drain in the sink, a.k.a. redeem the sink drain, so that bacteria does not build up and make us sick.  All of our work matters to God.  There is not any hierarchy of work in God’s perspective regardless of status or pay.  Today you have the complete freedom to pursue work that suits your gifts and passions knowing that you are participating with God in His work and creativity.  Therefore, whatever we do, let us work as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord we will receive great blessing, provision and dignity.

Lord, give us eyes to see our work as Your work.  Give us the heart to be happy in our labor knowing that all of our work matters to you.  Lord we want to continue with Your creation making it fruitful and multiplying all of the resources that You have given us.  Give us favor and honor as we do Your labor here on earth.  We do this work in the power of Your Holy Spirit because of Your Son Jesus Christ, in His name we pray.

TGIM: Thank God It's Monday!

Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Today, Monday, even though it may be difficult to admit, our work matters deeply to God. God has lovingly and with great purpose mandated that today and everyday we are to be faithfully developing our God-given talents with the God-given resources that He has given us through creation.  God entrusts us with “whatever” and He expects me to do something great and creative with it, something worthwhile, something that He finds valuable.  He calls us to be co-creators with Him through what He has already created.  That is what God means when He says, be fruitful with all of this creation that I am giving to you and multiply it.  Take this and do something great with it. Through every work we start He calls us to thrive in fruitfulness and productivity and make more of it, create value from it.  As we strive to do this we fulfill 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God.”  So, even on Mondays we can say, "Thank you God for Mondays, the work that God has given me today is His work and I will do it with creativity and joy! Let God become famous through our diligent, excellent work and labor.

Father, Creator, You have given us all of our honorable and good work.  This work is Your work, remind us of that moment by moment as we do the Work that You have given to us.  Father, let us be bold as we strive for fruitfulness and creativity.  Lord, You have told us to subdue this creation for You, give us favor and honor through our work to affect our workplace and this world so through Your strength You can receive glory and honor through all that we do today and everyday.  Thank You for giving us Your Son Jesus Christ, Who has completed Your most perfect work in redeeming us from sin and death.  In Jesus name, Amen.

100% Guaranteed Rest from Your Burdens

Matthew 11:28  Jesus says, Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden (burdened), and I will give you rest.

We live every day with this promise from our Lord Christ, “come to me and I will give you rest.”  And Christ is always faithful to fulfill His promises, He will always willingly come through to give you rest.  Jesus guarantees rest from whatever burdens you.  From what?   “Laboring and heavy burdens,” which are all the times today and this week that we are fearing what tomorrow holds, stressing about our children and family, drowning in a habitual sin, living in anxiety in an over scheduled life, worrying about judgment and desiring salvation, and anything else that contributes to us being emotionally, spiritually, or physically fatigued and discouraged.  The great news is that this is the state of mind that Jesus says is the beginning of salvation from all of the weight of fatigue and discouragement.  We most likely will not “come to Christ” unless we feel a great need as we are heavy burdened.  Our Lord is a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, Come to Him moment by moment and He will give you rest.  If the rest is slow coming then spend some more time at His feet resting in Him, He will always fulfill His promise of rest.


Father, thank You for the daily promise of rest in Christ as we live lives that are filled with fatigue and discouragement.  We are a needy people.  Give us rest.  Give us Your Spirit of strength, perseverance, wisdom, boldness, holiness as we move throughout this day.  Thank You for being a God who cares about us so intimately.  Let us see others who are also under the weight of discouragement and point them to You who promises rest.  For Your name’s sake, Amen.

Bear a Burden, Share a Burden

Galatians 6:2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Day by day as believers we live our lives in the reality that our Lord is going to place a burden on us.  What is a burden?  A burden is a tremendous weight, life difficulty, circumstance, occurrence, event, calamity, hardship, weakness, insult, persecution that the Lord has decided to either place upon us or He has allowed Satan to “stretch out his hand against us (Job 1:11-12).  Burdens are on purpose.  Every burden has a purpose in Christ.  Either way, these burdens are not to be carried by us alone.  The Lord has given us the family of God, brothers and sisters in Christ to BEAR one another’s burdens.  It is our obligation (Romans 15:1) as believers to accept, carry, undergo, endure, provide for my brothers and sisters as they are struggling with living under the strong weight of the burden that is upon them.  Burdens cannot be and have never intended to be carried by one person.  Let us walk amongst our brothers and sisters looking for burdens to bear.  When we see someone drowning in burdens let us promise to engage them to bear their burdens so that they come up for a breath of hope, encouragement, edification, relief.  If we are the one drowning under the weight of a burden let us humble ourselves to be able to say, “I have a burden I cannot bear.”  This is our obligation in Christ and yet bearing one another’s burdens is a rare occurrence, even in the Church.

Father, thank You for brothers and sisters in Christ who are faithful to bear burdens.  Let us as the Church take this command and obligation serious.  You have given us each other so that we will not be alone with these burdens.  You are our hope through the obedience and empowering of the family of God.  Thank You Lord for Your loving, shepherding hand as you guide us into green pastures and still waters without burdens as well as the deep dark valley with heavy burdens.  For Your name’s sake let us, the Church, bear one another’s burdens. In Jesus name, Amen.

A Great Shepherd that Promises to Equip Us With Everything Good to do His Will

Hebrews 13:20-21  Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Our Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, has a great task that has been given to Him by His father through an eternal promise that has been made a permanent promise by His shed blood.  Our Shepherd will never break this promise.  It is a forever promise.  Our great Shepherd’s promise is to equip us, His sheep, with “everything good” so that we may follow through at each given moment to complete His will.  Whatever comes our way in this life, we are equipped by our Shepherd to succeed at the Father’s will.  Whatever comes our way in school, work, home, relationships, financially, and everything else we can meet with the empowering of the Shepherd as He gives us “everything good” to do His will.  What a joyful, hope building promise we have as believers.  What are you in need of today that needs to be included in that “everything good” from your great Shepherd?  As our great Shepherd continuously equips us moment by moment through His Shepherding Spirit that is within us, He considers us pleasing in His sight and He gets great fame, honor, and glory from us, His Sheep, pursuing Him daily and yielding to Him as our Great Shepherd.  Seek the great shepherd, spend time with the great Shepherd, listen to the great Shepherd and He will equip you with “everything good” to do His will. 

Father, God of Peace, who has given us a great Shepherd in Jesus Christ, pursue us daily through Christ’s shepherding.  I pray that we as followers, your sheep, would pursue you as you pursue us.  Lord, for your name’s sake equip us with everything good to do your will.  Remind us throughout the day that you are equipping us.  Let us look for that equipping.  Let great hope and joy fill our lives with this promise. Thank you for the great equipper Jesus Christ.