Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Do You Enjoy Your Work?
Do you enjoy your work? I'm not just talking about your job or your career, but also work you do around the house or home, or for family or friends, or church. Do you enjoy your work? It's interesting, because there are consistent studies that indicate people are actually happier and more satisfied in the work that they do because of who they work for or with than because of what they actually have to do for their work.
I'd love to have a little bit of that lens going into our verse today. I had some things prepared, and I'm going to shift, because I just believe this morning God gave me something significant to share with you. It was just really impactful for my heart as I was considering this verse.
Our Verse of the Day is Colossians chapter 3, verse 23. "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."
Work in the Time of Paul
In the context of this passage, just a couple verses before, Paul is talking to husbands, wives and children. Then this verse is coupled in as he's actually addressing bond servants in the church of Colossae at the time.
What's interesting is that it's reported and estimated that in the Roman Empire at the time, one out of every three people were in some kind of servitude or slave role. That's significant—one out of three people could closely identify when he shifted from family dynamics to bond servants. The Apostle Paul and others actually referred to themselves as bond servants to Christ.
That's why, in the context of this passage, it's so significant to understand that time period. Please understand, the work that people did during that time was not like it is today, where it's about advancement, buying a house or doing this or that. At that time, it was simply to survive.
You didn't really have a choice of who you worked for. They pretty much had to take anything to be able to get food on the table, to have clothing, to survive—to just get by. Now we bring it into our context, and we look at this verse and other things through the context of our lives and the situations that we have.
When God Shut the Doors
I have to say, there was a time in my life when this verse became so personal to me. This was many, many years ago, but I was in a very, very difficult work situation, and I dreaded going to work. I was pleading with God to open some other door, and it just wasn't happening.
It became so clear that God was shutting all of the doors. I have to tell you, it was one of the most powerful, impactful times of my life in my relationship with Christ. Because my back was against a wall, it became about literally living out this verse. I had to realize that I had to step into something greater than my work, than what I did and my performance in life being predicated or dictated by whomever I was working for or with. All of a sudden, the presence of God and my relationship with Christ became the biggest dynamic driving that.
God revealed these things to me, and it was the most powerful season. I started realizing that I didn't have to be controlled by those kinds of influences and dynamics in my life as I allowed God to be the One I worked for on a continual basis.
From the Curse to Serving Our King
Now, catch this. This is the part that just completely blew me away this morning. Something else opened up with this verse. The moment that sin entered the world, God told Adam and Eve—if you look at the context of what He told them as part of the curse of our sin—that both of them would have to labor hard in their roles. They would have to work very, very hard because of their sin.
The other element—the powerful side of this verse—is when it says to work this way, even if you're a bond servant or something else. Think about that. What he is also relaying is that instead of this original sin curse of working and laboring to survive the rest of our days, as long as we live now, we get to labor for God.
It's a whole new dynamic that never existed before Christ—that we get to serve because of our Lord being the ultimate Servant, as referenced in Philippians chapter 2. What in the world? What a powerful dynamic, that we get to serve the Lord today! I would encourage you to consider whatever you're putting your hand to, whatever you're thinking about, whatever you're going through and working toward—whether it's family, friends, church or your career—to shift that dynamic today, and work and serve the Lord no matter what you do.
May it be in levels of service to our King.
