Taking It to Work:
Remember the story of Martha and Mary? They lived together and opened their home to Jesus and the disciples. Martha was running around trying to get all the preparations done that were required for that amount of guests. Instead of helping, Mary, her sister, was at the Lord’s feet, calmly listening and taking in what Jesus had to say to her. When Martha wanted her sister to help, Jesus said Martha was too anxious and that Mary had made a better choice of how to spend her time.
Work is a very large part of our lives, but a great career and all it will earn for us and our family is not to be the end game. It is necessary that we do work, and the proceeds from that work are very important, but we need to know that the pursuit of a career alone can take us down a very wrong path to a very dead end in the latter years of our life. We may have a pile of money and a lot of accolades for all our accomplishments, but we can miss by a mile what God truly created us to do and be. There are a lot of bitter old men and women in upscale nursing homes that will attest to that truth.
How do you avoid this all-to-common trap? We need to be spending time with our Lord each day – or as many days as we can muster. We need to be seeking His voice, and absorbing His Word, so we can follow His guidance for our lives. A life well lived without God ends up in a very different place than the same life lived well, directed by Him.
Yes, we are called to work hard and it’s fine to have a great career, but we are created and called first to be good followers. Let’s not be pulled along with the rest of the I-don’t-need-God or the I’m-too-busy-for-God culture. His path is different, narrower, and better, but we only find it at His feet, where His Words will guide you, today.
Luke 10:38-42 (ESV) – Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Ps 90:17 (ESV) – Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands — O prosper the work of our hands!
Matt 6:24 (ESV) – “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Ps 32:8 (ESV) – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
John 8:12 (ESV) – Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Listening to the Holy Spirit (Rhema):
Remember not the whims of the heart, for the very things you need are already in My will. All men know only shallow desires, unless within them is My Spirit. Loudly does the world call its followers, and wide is the road that brings camaraderie and confidence, but it leads not to the true desires of God within the man. Great momentum of those unsaved, driven by their own desires, races with abandon toward destruction. Be not one of those who hear not My voice amidst the great multitude. Find a time of quiet light, a place to refresh the weary day. Seek My counsel and My voice that you would be given Living Water for your thirst, and Bread of Life for your hunger. To a place of daily bread I call you. Seek in this time My Word, and call to He who called you to His throne of grace. Do not be swept along as so many. In My will lies your peace and the true desires of the heart. Follow Me to the quiet place, that you may fight the tide, and find your way.
