Part Two: How God Uses Work
Editor’s Note: This is part two of our “A Theology of Work” series. Read Part 1 here.
The average American spends about 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. That’s a lot of hours. This devotional series will attempt to answer the following question posed by the writer of Ecclesiastes.
“What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?” Ecclesiastes 3:9.
It’s a great question and one that you may ask yourself periodically during the course of your lifetime of work.
In Disney’s animated cartoon, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, the dwarfs go off to work to dig in their mines each day, singing, “Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, it’s off to work we go…”
In the middle of the song, they make an interesting statement. They sing, “We dig up diamonds by the score, thousands of rubies, sometimes more, though we don’t know what we dig them for.” The seven dwarfs would work all day long, and they didn’t know why they did it. Unfortunately, this sounds like a lot of Americans. They work all day long, and they are not quite sure why they do it.
So, grandchildren, we are back to the question posed in Ecclesiastes, “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?” Let’s look at what the Bible says about this.
1. Work allows us to cooperate with God’s purpose.
Genesis 2:15 says, ”Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”
God created us to work. The ultimate purpose of work is not just to make money. The ultimate purpose of work is not just to be successful. God’s ultimate purpose of work is to work. He created us to work. Idleness is not a good thing.
Even in my retirement, I am careful not to remain idle. I need to work. I just don’t get paid for it. Coaching at Gabrielino is almost like not getting paid.
So, “What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?” The worker is doing what he was created to do.
2. Work allows us to supply our needs.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica the following. “…Nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we might not be a burden to any of you.” 2 Thessalonians 3:8.
Paul taught them to supply their basic needs through hard work. He wanted to supply his own basic needs and not be a burden on anyone, so he worked.
What are “needs?”
Paul addressed this in Timothy 6:8. He wrote, “And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” According to Paul, there are two legitimate needs: food and coverings (clothing and shelter). Everything else is a blessing over and above basic needs.
Family, we are blessed with abundance. Too often, people become disenchanted with work because they are trying to provide for things beyond their needs. Be careful not to let “greeds” become needs.
Evangelist Vance Havner wrote, “Faith in God will not get for you everything you may want, but it will get for you what God wants you to have. The unbeliever does not need what he wants: the Christian should want only what he needs.”
When work allows us to provide the basic needs of life, we should be content, and anything beyond that is an incredible blessing from the Lord for which we should rejoice.
3. Work allows us to grow in Christ
One of the main goals of our lives should be to become more like Jesus. Paul wrote, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” At least four times in his letters, he encouraged believers to be like him because he is trying to be like Jesus.
I believe there are nine principles that we should follow if we are to grow in Christ through work. Today, I will share Principle One, and the last installment of this series will share the rest of the principles.
Principle One: Work allows us to develop our character.
One thing common to the workplace for everyone is the presence of trials and tribulations. Every workplace presents its unique challenges. According to the Scriptures, trials and tribulations produce character if we persevere through them.
Romans 5:3-4a says, “And not only this, but we exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character…”
Since we spend so much time at work, it may be the secondary place of character development, with the first being family.
In college, I worked for the Los Angeles County Fire Department in the weed abatement division. The very first day, I had to chop a break around a five-acre field of weeds by myself because everyone else on the crew had contracted poison oak. I wanted to quit, but I didn’t. It taught me to persevere. It taught me to never get overwhelmed by the size of a task. It helped develop my character.
Grandchildren, when confronted with the trials, the tribulations, and the humdrum of work, remember that it is a place where God plans on developing your character. Persevere so that you will become “perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. James 1:4b.
Love,
Grandpa
Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series called “Letters from Grandpa.” Each entry is written by Cory Ishida, who was the senior pastor of Evergreen Baptist Church of San Gabriel Valley until his retirement. During the pandemic, he texted devotions to his grandchildren to encourage them while they were apart, and he has continued this tradition to this day. We at the SOLA Network are honored to republish Pastor Cory’s devotions in hopes that they will be a blessing to the church.