Lots of people may find work to be a curse. But work should not at all be a curse. Everything you do in life you should do with pleasure. Though we do agree that for the present generation that is not easy at all.
In the beginning, God created also work. Lots of people seem to forget that or do notice it. One of the first things we learn about how God made us is that he designed us for work.
“Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28),
God said. And just so we didn’t miss his point, the author tells us,
“Jehovah, The Lord God, took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15).
That we have to take care of the earth, most people have forgotten. They mostly misuse the earth. These days and in the coming years, we shall feel the consequences of how man mistreated mother earth.
Throughout the Scriptures we can read how people treated their surroundings.
God shows us that work is part of His perfect design for our lives and the Bible tells us that one day we shall be able to find the restored paradise.
In fact, work is as much of a basic human need as food, beauty, rest, and friendship. Sociological studies show that without meaningful work, people suffer emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The loss of work is harmful to us because God specifically designed us for work.
Our work helps us discover part of what it means to be a human made in the image of God. It also helps us understand our own abilities and gifts. Working also allows us to feel useful and get satisfaction for those things we manage to achieve. Moreover, work is one of the main ways that God uses us to bless other people. He designed the world so that our work benefits others.
If you think of all the things you own and use — from toothpaste to highways to clothing stores — you will see that you have been immensely blessed through the work of countless people. Work is such a wonderful thing!
But we can safely admit that a large majority of people are not so happy with the work they do. Work doesn’t always feel good.
In fact, polls show that seven out of ten people “hate” or “strongly dislike” their jobs.
Why is that?
Why do so many of us despise what God created us to do, and which God uses to bless the world?
You probably already know the answer. The problem is not with work, but with us, human beings. We are sinful, which is not just a description of our guilt before God. To say that we are sinful also means that our thoughts, our feelings, and our actions are backwards, upside-down, twisted, polluted, and every other word we might use to say that our hearts and minds and souls and bodies are just plain broken. We can find people on this earth who misuse other people or let other people work for them, those doing all the work not gaining as much as the one who let the others work. In many companies, there is inequality between employers and workers. A lot of people are exploited and have to work at a pittance while the employer manages to line his pockets with the much-earned money on the backs of those workers.
On May 1, Labour Day, those relationships between employer and employee are discussed in many places. It is a day to think about the work that does need to be done.
Each of us bears responsibility for the work that belongs on this globe. Provision must be made that everyone can eat and sleep well, but that none of this happens by overburdening nature, through overfishing or overhunting, for example.
If everyone showed respect to the person, plant and animal around him or her, there would be no reason at all to be displeased for what one can do to advance the other as well as oneself.
Each time that our jobs seem stressful, difficult, taxing, boring, un-fun, hard, etc., we ought to remember why this is the case. How was it possible that it could come so far. Who or what is the cause of the burden of work.
For those who misuse other people, we should talk to them and try to bring them to other ideas.
If we know that goods are produced under poor conditions or made by child labour and/or at too low a wage, we should certainly not buy them in order to stop exploitation. As long as consumers choose the cheapest goods, they contribute to the exploitation of people and make themselves sinful according to the Laws of God.
We ourselves when we look for work, we must always check whether the work is responsible and whether the employer also gives his workforce the necessary respect. Someone who cannot show appreciation for the people who help him earn a living is not worth being helped. So, it is up to us first and foremost to do the right work so that we can make or accomplish worthy things under worthy conditions.
It is also notable how certain people have started to shift emphases in their lives. By focusing largely on accumulating as much material gain as possible, they have lost sight of the real values of life. As a result, work can sometimes be harder than it should be. Their materialism then kills them.
We should remember that no honest job is too hard, too insignificant, or too boring if done for the glory of God and for serving His son. That is why Paul exhorts us,
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Col. 3:23-24).
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Preceding
Believe me! Everything is Possible
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Find also to read
- Man enticed to long for more
- Begin by carrying away small stones to remove a mountain
- A look at materialism
- Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #8 Work
- I want to get paid for changing diapers, but i don’t want to run a day care
- Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief
- How do you keep people from stealing your joy?
- A treasure which can give me everything I need
- A look at materialism
- a Strong Family doesn’t just happen
- Work and career a major focus of young adulthood
- Brilliant.
- A risk taking society
- Jehovah shall make the earth waste and turn its ground up-side-down
- Today’s thought “Bible Tip for Life: Work Hard!” (November 20)
- Today’s thought “I know your works” (December 22)
- Do we have to be an anarchist to react
- Finding our identity in serving God
- The work I do, let it be done good
- Work with joy and pray with love
- Your New Job Description — Bless!
- God should be your hope
- God make us holy
- God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies
- A way to prepare for the Kingdom
- Paradise restored
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