Good morning everyone. As I sit here I’m prompted in my spirit to share about how God uses us in the work place to prepare us for the ministry He has in mind for each of us. Some of us will miss out on our chance to grow and that is really a shame. My hope is that it is not you or me.
Today’s Prayer
Dear heavenly Father, it’s the “dailyness” of life that tests our Christianity, isn’t it? It’s the things that we put off doing that tire us out the most. It’s our preoccupation with living that makes us forget You. Yet only in remembering You is there any real purpose to our lives! You have said, “I will write my laws upon their hearts.”* Oh Lord, slow us down that we may hear Your Holy Spirit speak to our spirit, and discover our heart’s true longings. In the wonderful name of Jesus we pray, Amen and Amen.
Let’s eat.
One Call, Many Jobs
“LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance” (Ps 16:5-6).
Most of us will have many jobs over our lifetime. As I look back over my past, I’ve had quite a varied history of jobs that included being a forklift driver, retail clerk, golf course manager, Brokerage executive, IT executive, and business owner. Today, I’m a minister and a Chief Marketing Officer for an international company. All of these jobs were important because they gave me a level of experience from which I now express God’s ministry. I am able to relate to those in the workplace because of my varied work experience throughout my career.
With each of our jobs, God is building something in us that will be used for His purposes now and in the future. Oswald Chambers says in one of his writings: “In the beginning we do not train for God, we train for work, for our own aims; but as we go on with God we lose all our own aims and are trained into God’s purpose. Unless practical work is appointed by God, it will prove a curse.”
Here are some biblical facts; Jesus was prepared for His ultimate calling by working with His father in his carpentry shop until He was thirty years old. More than 54% of Jesus’ teaching arose out of issues in daily life experience. Joseph was prepared to be head of a nation by serving prison time and being a slave in Potiphar’s house. Moses was prepared to lead a nation out of slavery by serving in Pharaoh’s house and later working forty years as a shepherd.
Don’t despise the small jobs-for they are stepping stones to a greater purpose in God’s plan for your life and for God’s preparation for your ultimate destiny. Some of these jobs are necessary for the message He is forming in you. Pray that God accomplishes His intended outcome in you through the work you are doing today.
Quote of the Day
Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such a way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and centre of their hearts.
A. W. Tozer