In Gallup’s 2013 State of the American Workplace study, 70 percent of those who participated described themselves as “disengaged” from their work.
Translation: 70 percent of Americans don’t like their jobs. Yikes!
There’s a reason King Solomon is considered one of the wisest men who ever lived. Thousands of years ago, he posed a question that’s even more relevant today. He wrote:
What do people really get for all their hard work? Ecclesiastes 3:9
King Solomon is asking, “Why do you work?”
Do you work to pay your bills? Do you work to get rich? Do you work so that you can retire? Since studies show you’ll spend 40% of your life working, maybe it’s time to think about the real reason you work.
Let me put it another way: If you’re an average American, you’ll spend about 150,000 hours of your life at work. That’s a long time considering how many people don’t like their jobs. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time understanding why people spend their lives doing something they don’t like.
Again I ask, “Why do you work?”
God Created Us To Work
Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground. Genesis 1:26-28
According to Genesis 1:26-28, work was a part of God’s plan from the beginning. God is a worker. You were created to work. Scripture says you were made in God’s image, so He wants you to be a worker.
Like you, I’ve heard some say, “Isn’t work the curse?” No, it’s not. God gave the man a job to do, even before sin entered the world. In the Garden of Eden, God says, “I want you to go out and rule the earth” and in Genesis 2, He says, “I want you to tend the Garden.” Contrary to popular opinion, the oldest profession is landscaping.
[shareable]God is a worker. You were created to work.[/shareable]
God says, “I want you to work because you were created to work.” Then what’s the curse? In Genesis 3 sin entered the earth, God said, “now your work will be painful.” Work is not a curse. Work is a blessing.
The pain that we consider to be the curse is the drudgery, the disappointment, the hardness of work, the discouragement that comes from work, and the difficulty in work. This is not a curse, but the result of sin.
Don’t view work as a necessary evil. God wants to bless you through your job. When you see work as God’s idea, it’ll change your perspective and give you a different understanding of work. Work God’s plan and we work to take care of our family.
[shareable]According to Genesis 3, work is not a curse. Work is a blessing.[/shareable]
We Work To Take Care Our Family
Working provides resources to meet the needs of your families and keeps you from burdening others. Let me let you in on a secret: No one likes people who freeload and don’t carry their weight.
People who “can’t” work and people who “won’t” work are not the same. There’s a big difference between the two. People who can’t work (due to illness, injury, or handicap) may legitimately need your support now and then.
However, if a person isn’t willing to work, Scripture says, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Sometimes the worse thing you can do for people is giving them charity. It reinforces their laziness. Since work is God’s idea, and it provides resources to take care of your family, work provides you with a sense of dignity.
[shareable]People who ‘can’t’ work and people who ‘won’t’ work are not the same.[/shareable]
Work Gives You Dignity
Do you see any truly competent workers? They will serve kings rather than working for ordinary people. Proverbs 22:29
How can you command respect from others if you don’t respect yourself? Work gives you self-respect. Furthermore, there is a sense of honor and dignity that results from legitimate work. There’s a certain amount of self-respect you can’t get any other way except through working.
It is that sense of accomplishment, that feeling of a job well done, that satisfaction on the inside that you know you gave it your best shot.
Have you had the wrong idea about work? Remember, work is God’s idea. Regardless of what you do, your work matters to God. He wants to use it in your life to bless you. If you don’t like your job, I’m encouraging you to pray:
- “Use my current job to help me grow, to help me be different, and to change me.
- “Lord, use me through my job so others can see you through me.”
Do you have additional suggestions to add?
My father was a deacon in the south in the state of Mississippi. He always told me that work is necessary to bring honest living and life works for a better future and to serve God. I live by those teachings from my father. Later in life, as we moved to Chicago; I always was a hard worker. I grew to understand more everyday this wisdom my father shared with me. I found this true as I study the bible more often. My father only gave me this advice cause he had learned himself as I, that “work” is a requirement from and through the grace of God. I’m considered by my doctors as disability; i can’t do a lot of work. But, God gives me the strength every single day to work around my house at a pace and help people as a servant of our Heavenly Father. I wouldn’t have it no other way. It self motivates me further to do more, not to sit and do nothing. If that’s a luxury, then when I do sit, I pray and thank Jesus our Savior for speaking the words of God. Like in Genesis, everything is there telling God’s children what to do for him. We all need to take a special look and read God’s instructions from that book (“Genesis “) of the bible. Thank you, a sister of faith serving for our Lord, Jesus in Christ and our Father GOD! Amen!
I was five years old then when my father talk with me on that porch after he worked so hard in the fields of his farm. Now, I’m 62 years young. Been a teacher now retired. Gid have blessed me tremendously for my hard work. Never too much any job I had, I can’t say I always did not like them, I was always glad to be working. I’m still getting it on with my work, working hard towards getting closer to Jesus and Our God.💖 Thank you Jesus!
Hi Barbara,
Thanks for taking time to read my post and share your story. What an amazing story on family, perseverance, work ethics, and God’s goodness. I’m encouraged to know that you’re a hard worker and learned valuable principles from your father. You’re an asset to the Kingdom of God.