Is God Interested in the Work We Do?
The answer to that will depend on your belief systems about life – your worldview if you like.
Our View on God and Work Is Influenced by One of Two Belief Systems
Generally speaking, there are only two fundamental worldviews in relation to God.
One is that there is a God, the other that there is no God.
With a few variables, the two belief systems are fundamentally that the world was either created, or it evolved from nothing.
Most human beings believe in God of some kind [ 84% worldwide, 95% in the United States].
We also see evolution been increasingly challenged in recent times as science progresses and begins to produce more evidence of intelligence in the design of the universe and indeed humans.
A Reason for God and Work
Assuming for the moment that there is a God who made the world, including us humans, can we make a connection between God and work?
We can see that a creator must be an intelligent one, deduced from examining the things around us that are made. One example of this is the impressive, intricate design of our own DNA.
I will make a small jump here and assume that therefore when God created the world and everything in it that he had some purpose and meaning for it, including purpose and meaning for you and me.
And I will make another jump here that this God is the God of the Bible. Most of the world’s population believe in the God of the Bible, although not necessarily the Christian God.
God tells us in the first book of the Bible that work was his idea.
If God and work were meant to be connected, then what can we learn about what God’s plan and purpose for that work was?
Work Is Meant to Be Good
Most of us will have experienced work as pleasure sometime in our life.
If work can be pleasurable, then what are the components that need to come together to make God and work more in sync.
There are some things that tell us that work is good for us in a physical sense.
For example, we know that people, who continue to work in some form late in life, live longer than those who retire early and do nothing.
Most of us have also experienced that sense of pleasure and fulfillment at the end of a day’s work when significant projects have been accomplished.
And for some, this can be an absolute delight.
So there is at least some identifiable good in work.
However, there is much to be said about work being a burden and that for most people weekends are a lot more enjoyable than the workweek.
We even have restaurant chains and songs titled “thank God it’s Friday”. Not a lot of God and work connection there.
Are Your Abilities from God?
We also know from the Bible that God thought about us and planned us as individuals even before he made the world.
A number of places in the Bible, in both the New Testament and the Old, it is revealed that when God made us, he instilled in us certain gifts and abilities that we can use while we are on this earth.
Furthermore, there is some expectation that we should use them and not neglect them (how would you feel if you gave someone a beautiful gift but they never opened it nor used it).
I guess it makes sense if we consider the God of creation making this world and all humans in it that He would have some sort of purpose for us and that he would equip those who he has made to enjoy life and find fulfillment in the one thing that they spend most of their waking hours doing.
If we believe in the God of the Bible then I think most people would conclude that the God of the Bible is a good and loving God and that he has our best interests at heart.
And if this were the case, this raises another question.
How come so many people seem to be miserable in their work and never seem to find fulfillment and satisfaction in it?
[Research suggests that somewhere around 60 to 80% of people are dissatisfied and/or mismatched in their work]
So if work is best integrated with the recognition that God can be involved, then a high percentage of the world’s working population doesn’t seem to be aware of this.
Why We Aren’t Happy at Work
If God wants us to be happy at work and he has given us the means to be happy at work, and we also want to be happy at work, then why isn’t it happening!
I guess you could apply this philosophy to a number of things in life when you bring God into the picture.
If God wants it to happen, and he is able to make it happen, then why isn’t it happening?
For example, if God is a loving God, how come thousands of people, including innocent children, die every day through starvation, disasters, and abuse at the hands of other people?
I believe the God of the Christian Bible provides the answers for these issues to a large degree, although they are not always that easy to digest, and I am not suggesting that some questions remain largely unanswered.
I believe the key to these issues is something that Jesus spoke about frequently in the New Testament.
Despite going to a church as a child, and even though this was clearly communicated in the New Testament, I never believed in this particular aspect of Christianity.
There are many Christians, nominal and otherwise who do not believe in this, despite clear and unequivocal teachings on it by Jesus Christ.
When I began to think more about why so many people did not believe in this particular facet of the spirit realm, it began to become clearer to me why this was happening.
If you do not believe in something, you cannot possibly address the effects that it produces.
If you don’t believe in insects, but every night insects are eating away all the vegetables in your garden, you will never be able to discover the problem.
Even if you get in a gardening expert for advice, and he tells you that your problem is that insects are eating your vegetables at night when you are asleep, this information will be no good to you if you do not believe in insects.
The fact that so many people don’t believe in this spiritual truth that Jesus talked a lot about, makes it impossible for them to address the issues that are affected by it.
What was the issue that Jesus spoke a lot about
The devil, Satan, Lucifer, the evil one.
The devil, Jesus tells us, is the prince of this world.
He tells us how the devil even tempted Him with three different temptations.
But many people who believe in God, do not believe in the devil.
Some say that they consider themselves a Christian, [or a Catholic or a Baptist or a Methodist or an Anglican or whatever denomination they belong to] but do not believe in the devil.
Christianity is about Christ.
And Christ believed in the devil.
Christ spoke about the devil many times.
And he warns us on many occasions about the devil.
He tells us that the devil does have some authority over us for a certain amount of time.
However, for those who do believe in Jesus Christ (and the event at Calvary whereby Jesus took the power back from the devil), they understand that he also personally gave them the authority to take back the power from the devil and not to be controlled by him.
So we don’t have to be controlled by the evil forces on this earth, but we so often are, Christians and non-Christians alike.
So how does this all relate to God and work?
One of the Devils mandates is to stop us enjoying life on earth.
And one of the ways he does this is to either tell us that God doesn’t care about us and that he has not given us any special gifts and abilities to use and enjoy.
Or to make it very difficult for us to find out what those abilities are.
If we are aware that we have an opposition working against us [keep in mind that the Bible tells us that Satan has come to rob and kill and destroy you – not nice stuff], then we at least have a chance of fighting that opposition.
If we deny the opposition exists, we have no chance of addressing those issues.
The good news is that you have been given great natural abilities by God when he put you together in your mother’s womb.
Your job is to bring God and work together by finding out what your God
And to ensure that you use them as best you can while you are on earth.
This is the key to a successful and fulfilling work life.
One way to help you find out what your God-given abilities are, is to complete something like the inborn job skills assessment.
This is the best assessment instrument that I know of to help a person find out what their natural inborn abilities are.
if you have never really included God in your decision making, it can be a completely different way of living and to bring significant purpose to your life. This happened to me in May 1990.
If you often wondered about whether God is real or not and more importantly, felt a pulling from inside to know more about God, read my take about getting to know God more.
If you feel you have not been using your God-given abilities and want to rectify that, I recommend you begin by completing my inborn job skills assessment.
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