Why we work so hard (or why we should)

Busy people. You know who you are.

Do you stop—even for a second—and think why you’re so hard at work?

If you’re glorifying God in your work, if your time is spent for Him in what you do, it is still work; if it’s hot it’s still hot, if it’s hard it’s still hard, but working for God is different. It’s better.

It’s somehow easier.

And it’s always gratifying.

Always.

Sometimes we Christians beat ourselves up. We get fixated in this Worker Bee mode. Those around us better look out, because come highs and lows, long hours and low help (because a good number of volunteers didn’t show that day), we white knuckle, burrow through, and git ‘er done.

And then there’s exhaustion.

Does being crucified in Christ and no longer living for ourselves (Galatians 2:20) mean we are to overwork ourselves?

We are not to push ourselves to exhaustion. If we are honest, however, most of us aren’t working enough.

Since this is a Montrose-based paper, I will mention a Montrose radio station. Recently, I was listening to a preacher whose name I didn’t catch on WPEL FM. A point he made really stuck when he said, “Jesus didn’t call us to sit. He called us to serve.”

This radio evangelist considered a pervasive attitude among those working for Christ which is that far too many of us aren’t working for Christ.

Maybe we are getting too comfortable. Not being of this world (John 15:19, Romans 12:1-2) means what it says: we are not of this world. We can’t sit and watch. We can’t sit and wait, either.

Why we work so hard (or why we should work so hard) is because salvation matters. Because the gospel is not just told through us, it is shown through us.

I quoted Shannon L. Alder this past Sunday. The following may be a little fresh for some, but this is how she hears Christ speak to her. “Your job is to get off your self-righteous butt and start reaching out to the difficult people because my ministry wasn’t about a bunch of nice people getting together once a week to sing hymns and get a feel good message, that you may or may not apply, depending on the depth of your anger for someone. It is about caring for and helping the brokenhearted, the difficult, the hurt, the misunderstood…. It is allowing people as many chances as they need because God gives them endless chances.”

Christ continues in her mind and I pray in your mind, too. “When you do this then you will know me and you will know true happiness and peace. Until then, you will never know who I really am. You will always be just a fan or a Sunday only warrior. You will continue to represent who you are to the world, but not me. I am the God that rescues.”

Help our God who rescues. How? Rest hard, yes, but to know who Christ really is? Work hard.

Busy people. You know who you are.

Do you stop—even for a second—and think why you’re so hard at work?

If you’re glorifying God in your work, if your time is spent for Him in what you do, it is still work; if it’s hot it’s still hot, if it’s hard it’s still hard, but working for God is different. It’s better.

It’s somehow easier.

And it’s always gratifying.

Always.

Sometimes we Christians beat ourselves up. We get fixated in this Worker Bee mode. Those around us better look out, because come highs and lows, long hours and low help (because a good number of volunteers didn’t show that day), we white knuckle, burrow through, and git ‘er done.

And then there’s exhaustion.

Does being crucified in Christ and no longer living for ourselves (Galatians 2:20) mean we are to overwork ourselves?

We are not to push ourselves to exhaustion. If we are honest, however, most of us aren’t working enough.

Since this is a Montrose-based paper, I will mention a Montrose radio station. Recently, I was listening to a preacher whose name I didn’t catch on WPEL FM. A point he made really stuck when he said, “Jesus didn’t call us to sit. He called us to serve.”

This radio evangelist considered a pervasive attitude among those working for Christ which is that far too many of us aren’t working for Christ.

Maybe we are getting too comfortable. Not being of this world (John 15:19, Romans 12:1-2) means what it says: we are not of this world. We can’t sit and watch. We can’t sit and wait, either.

Why we work so hard (or why we should work so hard) is because salvation matters. Because the gospel is not just told through us, it is shown through us.

I quoted Shannon L. Alder this past Sunday. The following may be a little fresh for some, but this is how she hears Christ speak to her. “Your job is to get off your self-righteous butt and start reaching out to the difficult people because my ministry wasn’t about a bunch of nice people getting together once a week to sing hymns and get a feel good message, that you may or may not apply, depending on the depth of your anger for someone. It is about caring for and helping the brokenhearted, the difficult, the hurt, the misunderstood…. It is allowing people as many chances as they need because God gives them endless chances.”

Christ continues in her mind and I pray in your mind, too. “When you do this then you will know me and you will know true happiness and peace. Until then, you will never know who I really am. You will always be just a fan or a Sunday only warrior. You will continue to represent who you are to the world, but not me. I am the God that rescues.”

Help our God who rescues. How? Rest hard, yes, but to know who Christ really is? Work hard.