As we begin this New Year, like getting your wheels aligned after a year of swerves, bumps, and potholes, we’d like to reflect on whether our lives are aligned with God’s will. This last devotion helps us align our understanding of the true purpose of work:

IN WORD –There is a deeper issue here than working with the right attitude. It is a question of life orientation. Whom do you belong to? Who is sovereign over your circumstances? Who is really in control?
Multitudes of people do not enjoy their jobs. The unbelieving would simply rather be doing something else. As believers, we often see our work as an interference in our lives of faith. We would enjoy our lives more without it. We would have time to study God’s Word more if we didn’t have to put in our forty-hour weeks. We would have more time to build important relationships. We easily feel as if we are in the wrong place when we are working at the things we have to do. At the bottom of that feeling is a questioning of God’s sovereignty in our lives. We wonder why He has put us where He has.
God has not placed us where we are simply for the output we can produce, whether it is at a factory, at a desk, at school, or at home with children. He has put us there because that is a context in which He wants to display Himself. Our work is about Him, even if it’s entirely secular in our minds. We are there because God wants to put godliness on display for others to see. He wants to infiltrate the culture we work in.
IN DEED – Is godliness at work in your preoccupation? If you’re like many people, you may be preoccupied by the unpleasantness of being there. You may feel like your work is pointless, your boss is unfair, or your coworkers are petty. Never mind. None of those things are the point. The point is for the Holy Spirit to dwell in you there, wherever you happen to be. And in that sense, you are working for God, not for the one who signs your paycheck. Whatever you do, have this in mind: You are doing it not just because God wants you to be there, but because He wants to be there too. “Work without a love relationship spells burnout.” — Lloyd John Ogilvie (in “Walk with God” by Chris Tiegreen)

Do you realize the purpose you were saved is not merely so that you can go to heaven? You are called to be an agent of God’s Kingdom. Why do you think the Lord’s Prayer begins with “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”? Do you realize that many epistles follow the same pattern, a teaching on salvation followed by a call to be His agent in the world?
Take time to read Romans 12, Ephesians 5 and 6, Colossians 3, and 1 Thessalonians 4, a chapter a day this week. Note the “therefore” that is at the beginning of each section, a response to God’s salvation presented in the previous chapters (Romans 1-11, Ephesians 1-4, etc.). Indeed, your work matters to God because it is through your work that the things of heaven will be manifested on earth. Ephesians 2:8-9 is not complete until you are walking in Ephesians 2:10. Only then can God’s good and perfect will be manifested in your life, your family, your community, and the world. Have a blessed week! – from Singapore, Pastor Sam