Does your work really matter?
Is work just something you do until you retire?
What’s your motivation for work?
What should be your motivation for your work?
How should a Christian view his or her work?
During your working career, 50% of your waking hours are spent on the job. Only 33% of workers reported feeling engaged at work, 50% feel stressed on a daily basis, 41% are worried, 22% are sad, and 18% are angry (cnbc.com 2022/08/12). According to the Pew Research Center, here are the top three reasons people leave a job: Pay was too low, no opportunities for advancement, or felt disrespected at work (Feb 7-13, 2022).
We are studying through the book of Ecclesiastes and the writer of the book, King Solomon, is making initial conclusions about life “under the sun” - life in this fallen world. So, it is no surprise he has a lot to say about work.
A Brief Biblical Overview of Work
God assigned Adam meaningful work before sin entered the world (Gen. 2:15).
Work continued after the Fall under the “curse” of sin (Gen. 3:17-19).
Throughout history, work has been used to enslave and abuse. It has been used in prideful ways, power trips, promoting greed, and prompting pride. Some place their identity in jobs and careers. Others have chosen to let others provide for them (see 2 Thess. 3:1-12).
Solomon’s Take on Work “Under the Sun”
“Under the Sun” Work Challenges (Eccl 10:5-16)
Non-leaders in leadership positions (Eccl 10:5-7)
No forward thinking (Eccl 10:8-9)
No strategic planning (Eccl 10:10)
No patience investment (Eccl 10:11)
Lack of good communication (Eccl 10:12-14)
Lack of vision (Eccl 10:15)
Inexperience (Eccl 10:16)
“Under the Sun” Work Motivation (Eccl 4:4-16)
Envy (Eccl 4:4)
Greed (Eccl 4:7-8)
Luke 12:15
And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
Pride (Eccl 4:9-12)
God’s View of Your Work
1. Discover God’s calling for you.
Vocation: a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action.
What is God calling you to do? What is he summoning you to do? You have to prayerfully determine that. Meet with people in your small group. Get vocational counseling. What interests has he placed on your heart? What vocation makes your heart beat a little faster?
The first sign of a heavenly calling is an intense, all-absorbing desire for the work. “Do not enter the ministry if you can help it…” If any [one] in this room could be content to be a newspaper editor, or a grocer, or a farmer, or a doctor, or a lawyer, or a senator, or a king, in the name of heaven and earth let him go his way…for a man so filled with God would utterly weary of any pursuit but that for which his inmost soul pants.
The desire should be one, which continues with us, a passion which bears the test of trial, a longing from which it is quite impossible for us to escape, though we may have tried to do so; a desire, in fact, which grows more intense by the lapse of years, until it becomes a yearning, a pining, a famishing to proclaim the Word.
C. H. Surgeon, Lectures to My Students, 25
I know that Spurgeon is speaking directly to ministry, but would it be wrong to think that God has impassioned us for the vocation he called us to do? What do you do that allows you to feel God’s pleasure? (In Living Grounded, we have an entire session on finding God’s will).
2. Your vocation is a gift from God.
Eccl 3:9-11a
Eccl 3:12-13
Eccl 2:24-26
Your calling is a gift from God. Steward it well.
1 Cor 10:31
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Pray every day that God will allow you to use his gift to honor him.
3. Pursue your calling with an eternal perspective.
We live “under the sun”, but with Jesus, we have an “over the sun” perspective. Your vocation is about Jesus.
Col 3:23
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive an inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Josiah Leuenberger, Director of the Nashville Institute of Faith and Work, well says that we get ourselves into trouble when we seek fulfillment in work rather than God.
Seeking fulfillment in work apart from the gospel is like pouring water into a leaky bucket and wondering why it can’t be filled. Jesus sets us free from the endless cycle that each of us fall into so easily when we live with ourselves at the center of our story. He invites us into a better pursuit of approaching work as an opportunity to know and enjoy God, grow in him, and serve others as a response of gratitude for his love and service to us.[1]
Timothy Keller has written a book called, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work. Here’s what he says about a biblical viewpoint of work.
Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavors, even the best, will come to naught. Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavor, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God's calling, can matter forever.
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[1] Josiah Leuenberger, Can Fulfillment at Work be Found? nifw.org, August 10, 2022.
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