I am continuing my reading of the book about God and work, called “Every Good Endeavor,” by Timothy Keller. Through this book, there are a lot of chapters of working and the importance of working hard for the glory of God. However, there is then a chapter about the importance of working selflessly. This is not working with a sense of pride, but rather this is working with a sense of godliness and overall humility at knowing that the work being done is your calling.
I wanted to make sure I talked about this because previously in my last blog post, I only talked about the importance of hard work. Sometimes people could take that and run with it too far. They may start to try to work too hard where the work starts to become a god to them, or they start to look at work in a very selfish light. It is only to bring glory to themselves or to bring in a lot of money for them. They don’t work to spread God’s word or to show other people love. It is very important to make sure you have a good heart when you go into work, every single day.
I can sometimes care too much about work. I care too much about looking a certain way, and I want to be considered a very good worker at whatever place I am working. I want to make sure I look good in front of everyone and in front of every job employer. I need to always make sure I look presentable. In part, I do think this is important. We should want to look professional and make sure to hold ourselves accountable to do good work. However, on the other hand, we need to make sure we are doing it for the glory of God, as opposed to doing it for personal glory.
It can be so easy to turn our success around and start to think that this success is only brought by ourselves. One quote I really like from this chapter said, “We either get our name-our defining essence, security, worth, and uniqueness–from what God has done for us and in us (Revelation 2:17), or we make a name through what we can do for ourselves. (Keller, Timothy, Every Good Endeavor, pg. 110). It is really an either/or situation. We can not be completely committed to Christ and His Glory if we are too focused on our own success and glory.
There are many verses that bring up fighting against idols. One of them is Habakkuk 2:18, which says, “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!” This Bible Verse is a good reminder to us people that idols are really not something or anything of value. They are something of our own creation. They aren’t something holy or glorious or anything of that nature, they are just a part of our own hands and working.
Sometimes when we can start to make work too much of an idol, then we can also start to be judgmental of others and how they do work. We can start to compare ourselves to others. We can start to make sure we are always looking better than the rest of the other workers. This can be against other Christians as well as those not yet a part of the Chrisitan faith. We instead can be so focused on the work that is being done by ourselves, that we don’t see the good that is being done by all people and all workers as a unit.
This is a good reminder that God gives goods and talents to all people in the world. He has certain things people need to accomplish, and that is the thing we should be more focused on. We need to be more focused on the work being accomplished for God’s glory, not whether or not we are the ones who are accomplishing these certain goals and these certain good things.
I have two challenges for you this week. The first is to encourage another coworker you have. It is just a good reminder to say encouraging notes and to keep in mind that God is at work in every one of the workers at your particular job. He has given various degrees of talents and interests to them, so there can be hopefully a productive work environment. Sometimes we all need a bit of encouragement, so I encourage you to be that for someone else at your place of work.
Colossians 3:23 Blog 