Good Works

In Colossians 3:23-24, it says that “whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” We can be fooled into believing that once we get a job, we have to work hard for our boss – our earthly masters – in order to impress them. We should do our jobs in the best way possible, but remember that we ultimately do it for the Lord – our heavenly master – because he gives us the ability to work.

You cannot support your family and buy the things you want unless you have the ability to work. Even if you were born into money, you still have to figure out ways to keep it and letting your money work for you.

In order for you to receive the Lord’s inheritance, you have to work for it. We have to thank God for any job opportunity we get, any kind of bonuses we receive, and any financial raises we see in our paychecks.

The reason why we must thank God for the ability to work is because you can easily be in a situation where you can’t work. I know someone who is disabled that wishes they had the ability to work a full-time job. A lot of us have the tendency to complain about our jobs even though we were likely happy when we first got it. We talk about our bosses, our coworkers, and the work itself. Only when we lose that job and that income we wish we had our job back, or one like it. Like Philippians 2:14-15 says, you should do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

I’m not saying that we should work a job that we don’t like, but we do have to make sure our job is bad as we claim it is before leaving it. Sometimes it’s not that the job is so terrible; a lot of times it’s because of our attitude and our mindset. If we come to work thinking I’m going to be miserable, we going to be miserable. If we go to work believing that our coworkers are jerk, everything they do is going to make us mad. I believe if we go to our jobs with a positive outlook, we will have a lot more good days than bad days.

That’s why we should take the advice of Galatians 6:9, which says “…let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” We have to believe that we will benefit from our hard work if we do not spend our money foolishly. Don’t talk about it; be about it. Like it says in Proverbs 14:23, “in all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty.” Proverbs 13:4 says, “the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.”

Once our hard work provides us with financial security, we have to keep in mind that our work is not done. It’s not enough to work hard to get what you want; once you get it you have to know how to keep what you’ve obtained.