How to Get the Most Out of Your Work (and other devotionals)

How to Get the Most Out of Your Work

Matthew 20:25-28 

According to Scripture, work is to be part of the believer's life. We all have daily tasks, and many Christians hold jobs outside the home. Some people view these as drudgery. Others wake up excited to face the day's challenges. What is your outlook?

There is an important biblical principle to follow if you are going to enjoy your work: View yourself as a servant. This might be hard if you feel unappreciated or your coworkers are difficult. But consider the example that the Lord set for us. He was rejected, tortured, and crucified. Yet Jesus was willing to serve even His tormentors with His attitude and, ultimately, with His life. Colossians 3:23-24 states, "Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men . . . It is the Lord Christ whom you serve."

When I was in college, this proved to be a valuable perspective. I worked in the bleachery, which was the hottest and most uncomfortable job at the local textile mill. At first, I focused on how much I disliked this position. But I decided to change my attitude and look for opportunities to serve Jesus through my work. For the first time, the heat did not bother me. In fact, I was eager to share my faith with those around me. People listened and responded because they noticed my demeanor.

No job is perfect; each position has negative aspects. But we can find joy and excitement even in the most menial task when we decide to work for God. Choose to serve Christ in all you do. After all, why face each day with dread when you could experience excitement and anticipation? 

~Dr. Charles F. Stanley~

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Is there anything too hard for Jehovah? (Gen. 18:14).

Here is God's loving challenge to you and to me today. He wants us to think of the deepest, highest, worthiest desire and longing of our hearts, something which perhaps was our desire for ourselves or for someone dear to us, yet which has been so long unfulfilled that we have looked upon it as only a lost desire, that which might have been but now cannot be, and so have given up hope of seeing it fulfilled in this life.

That thing, if it is in line with what we know to be His expressed will (as a son to Abraham and Sarah was), God intends to do for us, even if we know that it is of such utter impossibility that we only laugh at the absurdity of anyone's supposing it could ever now come to pass. That thing God intends to do for us, if we will let Him.

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Not when we believe in Him enough to go forward and do His will, and let Him do the impossible for us. Even Abraham and Sarah could have blocked God's plan if they had continued to disbelieve.

The only thing too hard for Jehovah is deliberate, continued disbelief in His love and power, and our final rejection of His plans for us. Nothing is too hard for Jehovah to do for them that trust Him

~L. B. Cowman~

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God Is Invested in You!

BIBLE MEDITATION:
“For the LORD your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.” Deuteronomy 20:4

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:
Do you remember the miracle God performed when He brought the Israelites through the Red Sea, when they were being hunted down by Pharaoh’s army? It was incredible.

Now let me ask you: What happened three days later? The Israelites began grumbling because there was no water!

Do you think God would invest such a miraculous deliverance in them, then abandon them just days later? Absolutely not!  But what happens to us when we are down in the dumps and wondering where God is taking us? We become just like the Israelites!

And yet God did something more for you than He did for them! He sent His precious and only Son to die on Calvary’s tree for you. God redeemed you.

More than God bringing you out of a watery grave, He delivered you from eternal damnation into glorious communion with Him forever! God saved you! What more could you possibly want?

ACTION POINT:
Are you down in the dumps today? Do you feel like the victim of a bad situation? Do you feel like God has abandoned you? Then write down Deuteronomy
20:4 on a piece of paper and meditate on it until you believe it.

~Adrian Rogers~

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Call me not Naomi, call me Mara - Ruth 1:20

So she spoke, as many have spoken since, not knowing that God's ways are ways of pleasantness and all His paths peace, when they are not isolated from the plan of our life, but considered as parts of the whole. We cannot pronounce on any part of God's dealing with us until the entire plan has been allowed to work itself out. How grieved God's Spirit must be, who is lovingly doing His best, when He hears these words of murmuring and complaint! Let us lift the vail, and notice the pleasant things in Naomi's life.

True, her husband and sons were dead; but their deaths in a foreign land had left her free to come back to her people and her God; to nestle again under the wings of Jehovah; and to share the advantages of the Tabernacle.

True, Orpah had gone back. Mahlon and Chilion were both buried in Moab; but she had Ruth, who was better to her than seven sons.

True, she had no male child to perpetuate her name; but the little Obed would, within a few months, be nestling in her aged arms, and laughing into her withered face.

True, she was very poor; but it was through her poverty that Ruth was brought first into contact with that good man, Boaz; and, beside, there was yet a little patrimony which pertained to her.

Yes, Naomi, like thousands more, thou must take back thy words. Thou didst deal bitterly with thine own happiness in leaving the Land of Promise for Moab; but God dealt pleasantly with thee in thy return and latter end. "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy."

~F. B. Meyer~

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Don’t Waste Your Failures

by Max Lucado

My wife and I spent some years as missionaries in Brazil. Our first two years felt fruitless and futile. More often than not I went home frustrated. So we asked God for another plan. We prayed and reread the Epistles, especially focused on Galatians. It occurred to me I was preaching a limited grace. When I compared our gospel message with Paul’s, I saw a difference. His was high-octane good news. Mine was soured legalism. We focused on the gospel, proclaiming forgiveness of sins and resurrection from the dead. We baptized forty people in twelve months! God wasn’t finished with us. We just needed to put the past in the past and God’s plan in place.

Don’t waste your failures by failing to learn from them. Rise up! God hasn’t forgotten you. Keep your head up. You never know what good awaits you.