Taking it to Work:
What do you want to be when you grow up? That has got to be one of the most common questions posed in the early years of life.
When my boys were little they loved when the garbage truck would come each week. Not so much to see the truck, but to see the man of God who sat behind its wheel – Mr. Ash.
Mr. Ash was an older man who just loved children. Without fail, he always took the time to talk and joke with my boys. You could tell he truly enjoyed them. Sometimes he would pass out humongous candy bars to each of them. He would always wave to me and my wife, and never had a negative word to say. We tipped him good one Christmas, and he even stopped by on his way to church one Sunday to thank us personally. It was cool to see him all cleaned up in his Sunday best.
Are you an engineer, or do you work as one? Are you an accountant, or do you do accounting? Even as children of God we can forfeit our identity to our careers. Not that it is wrong to describe yourself in such a way, but be careful that it doesn’t also become your value.
If you are a redeemed believer and follower of Jesus Christ, your call and worth is infinitely higher than any job or title from your workplace. Paul made tents, but he was much more than a tent-maker. Jesus worked with wood, but was more than a carpenter. Mr. Ash, he drove a garbage truck, but I would never call him just a garbage man.
What are you? Look closely at today’s scriptures. His description of you may be much more than you expect, as His Word works in you, today.
Eph 2:10 (ESV) – For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
John 1:12 (ESV) – But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God…
Romans 8:37 (ESV) – No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
2Tim 1:7 (ESV) – for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
1Cor 3:16 (ESV) – Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
Philippians 3:20 (ESV) – But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ…
Listening to the Holy Spirit (Rhema):
Under My hand is all of heaven and earth. You are part of My magnificent creation – small, but complete in grandeur, as the reflection of My Spirit dwells within you. I am Jesus, that you would know the Father of all, Emmanuel, that I might dwell with men. The creation of earth is only the beginning of a great story written long ago. My Spirit dwells, that from this beginning there would be life eternal, and glory beheld by the creation. Your hand and mind have been given, that you would know your God and the love of the Eternal for those created. You are saved to be sanctified for Me. Your occupation is not the god of your life. It is the leaf of the tree, feeding and giving life, a means of receipt of My provision, but the leaf is not the tree, identified by the leaf, but much more than the leaf. Do not lose your identity in Me, to the identity of your means of provision. You are much more. Come into My presence. Seek Me in My Word. Come that you would receive counsel for your days. In season, your leaves will change, dry and wither, but the tree remains.
