Let Our Work Be Pleasing to God

Lazy people’s desire for sleep will kill them,

    because they refuse to work.

All day long they wish for more,

but good people give without holding back.

(Proverbs 21: 25 - 26)

As people who look forward to work every day, we are called to please God with our work. Some of us may be professionals who work towards the next stage of our career and some of us may be students who are doing all our best to reach the place that we dream of. At the same time, few of us may be seeking to find the most suitable place for us to do our work and also few of us are putting up the calculations to do the next work at home. But all of us are called to please God in our work. 

I was inspired by one of the writings from Cure for the Common Life quoted by Max Lucado, in one of his devotional writings. He invites us to be one of those people who could bring this world revolution of working to please God. But what I found interesting is to further look into these verses referred by Lucado. I find these verses, Proverbs 21: 25 - 26, taking us a step further. The professional world would be a place of blessing for us if all of us do our little part to please God and not to please people! What if everyone had God in their mind when they worked. Every teacher, every nurse, every mechanic, every businessman and every entrepreneur. What would be the quality of their work? What would be their thoughtfulness to serve while they earn? Interesting. 

I have been continuously contemplating the ideas of work, wages and giving for the past few months. And these verses were given as the answer. There are many of us who want to earn so that we could give. But the verses we have looked into today from Proverbs 21 remind us that the act of giving does not happen randomly. It comes through a carefully knitted thoughtfulness. I take the phrases 'desire for sleep', 'refusal to work', 'wishing for more' and 'giving without holding back' to be important parts that positively and negatively affect this act of giving. And the happiness of this giving comes from setting all these processes with the thought that we are working for God. 

If being a blessing to others is the most important aim of our work, then the first thing is to remember that we are working for God. And this remembrance keeps the desire to sleep far away from us and we begin to work diligently with all our effort. Sleep is essential for us, but it will not come to us as a desire. It will come as an essential rest for the day after the hard work. And, yes, with the desire to sleep being far away, the refusal to work also fades away. We would enjoy this newly found interest in the work that we do. We would work towards daily progress. We would begin to identify the shortcomings and would work towards betterment, and many more positive vibes would follow. A diligent, progressive and hard work would indeed bring in that goodness in us that looks towards more gain. And truly this act of 'wishing for more' would enable in us the good act of 'giving without holding back.' Thus, through this connected process of all negativities becoming positive, we could look forward towards doing our best at work! Our work would be pleasing to God and would be a blessing to many around us. 

These verses show us that when we work for God with integrity and diligence in whatever we do, our work becomes a blessing first of all to ourselves, and then to our family, our friends, our neighbours and our loved ones, and especially for those who are in need. 

I pray that all of us, in whatever we are doing right now in our lives, through our daily work targets, let us work to please God. When we work, let us remind ourselves that we are working for God. And let us continue to believe that He will bless us with so much goodness that we would be able to give without holding back. May the blessing of our God the Father, the grace of Christ Jesus and the guidance of the Holy Spirit help us to be diligent and fruitful workers and be a blessing to all those around us. 

May God bless you.

Yours in Christ,

"Establish the Work of Our Hands"