Work and God's Eternal Purpose...

Life Management. Work and Destiny. Your work matters to God. This is the lesson we have been studying in our Immanuel Institute every Saturday night at Immanuel Christian Fellowship church. Last night we discussed about lesson 9 of Life Management 3, "Promotion through Excellence". It inspires me to write about this because it helps me or let me say give me that knowledge that work does not only mean for money or a career. I have learned that there are many wrong reasons for working which will never bring us into an area of true fulfillment and purpose achievement. We only know some reasons why work is to make a living, to work to rest let me say for leisure. To accumulate wealth for luxurious living, to secure the future, to enhance social status and yet all of these reasons are basically selfish. In this lesson of Life Management, I found out that in the perspective of God, there are many right reasons for working that will bring personal fulfillment to us and, at the same time, to glory to God. There are Godward reasons; to serve God and cooperate with His purpose for our life. To bring glory to God and honor to His name and to fulfill the dominion mandate and extend the kingdom of God in the earth. There are Manward reasons as well; to benefit mankind, to bless others, to meet the human needs. And aside from Godward and Manward, there is this Selfward reasons, which is to accomplish the will of God for our life. To become all that God has made it possible for us to become in Christ. To receive the reward from the Lord. 

Many people despise work because they don't understand the purpose of work. They see work as punishment, so they are unmotivated and as a result get little or nothing at the end of the day. That is why they complain and grumble about their work. Every man who lacks this understanding lives under punishment and pressure all the days of his life. Work is the Ladder to Elevation. Your work determines your rating and your rating determines your promotion. Nothing gives you the opportunity for promotion like work and nothing attracts promotion for you like work. Many people today make career choices and determine job loyalty on the basis of the amount of money that they will receive for their efforts. No matter what you do, your job exists for a reason. When you know that reason and when you fully understand how your efforts make the world a better place for someone else, you have found your job's purpose. Now, this isn’t one of those you must live in the moment posts. What I’m saying is that I discovered my purpose in work when I finally realized that it’s the experience of what I’m doing and living my work with passion that defines my purpose. Giving in to that idea is how purpose finds you. It is a true saying, that the highest reward for any kind of labour is not what you get from it, but what you become by it.

Let me share a quote from the book, Work, Work, Work! by Ben Patterson: "If we truly believed and ordered our lives according to  the biblical idea of work, we would also take in a new attitude toward both work and leisure. If we really believed that work is something for which God made us-- that we live to work, not work to live-- then we would not look upon our work as something we must hurry up to get done so that we can get on with our play. We would look upon our play and rest as a change of pace or rhythm that refreshes us for the delightful purpose of getting back to the work God created us to do. "
Regardless of  your specific job or career, every believer has a general call from God that will affect how he or she functions in the marketplace. If your job is your calling, it is the only one in which you can fulfill your destiny. If we are to understand and appreciate God's working in our lives we must come to an understanding of His will and purpose. Everything which God has and will do is to one glorious end.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters," - Colossians 3:23