Praying Always

Do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil, who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts.  Give to them according to their work and according to the evil of their deeds; give to them according to the work of their hands; render them their due reward. – Psalm 28:3-4

What we do is heard by God as much or more than what we say.  As you may recall, Tomberg talks about the various forms of prayer, one of which is true work, which he defines as work done with one hundred percent effort.  Work may be intellectual in pursuit of truth, reflecting the phrase of the Lord’s Prayer which says, Hallowed by thy name, or creative, reflecting, Thy kingdom come, or yet our effort to provide for the supply of material needs as in, Give us this day our daily bread.  God bestows a benediction in keeping with the nature of this form of prayer.

Just so when the wicked pray by means of their wicked works, God pays them in their coin of choice.  God does not pay every Friday because He is loving and merciful and long-suffering, but when He does pay, it is in full.  For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality, as Paul says.

While we’re in Colossians 3, we might as well think about why full effort makes all our work spiritual.  It is because we are acknowledging the One for whom we are really working.  Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.  Our full effort presses us beyond our physical, mental and emotional limitations.  Like suffering, our exertion forces us to rely upon the spiritual component of our being and draws Christ more intimately into our lives.  Work, when done with the right perspective, is communion and identification with the Lord.  We can obey the admonition to pray without ceasing as we give ourselves wholly to God in whatever it is that we do.    

Just Got Paid Today

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.  — Colossians 3:23-24

No matter what we do for a living, or just for living, it is the Lord's work.  Most people we know, maybe even ourselves, need a change in perspective.  Whether a person is CEO or janitor, teacher, union boss, guard or governor, housewife or construction worker, he or she is able to do that job to please the Lord.  A person can be engaged in things that run generally counter to God's will and the rightness of that work has to be considered in a larger context — an assassin, for example.  Surely a hooker might want to look for a more legitimate and honest line of work, and the same for a professional politician — but I repeat myself.

Aside from the immoral, anything we do can be done as for God.  Paul addressed his words initially to slaves in the Roman Empire who might be assigned demeaning tasks by cruel masters.  It did not matter.  The Christian can turn an unjust demand into an opportunity to serve the Lord. 

Most of us these days are not faced with deep moral dilemmas on the job.  Our questions run more along the lines of whether or not our work is meaningful and significant.  Are doctors or EMTs or police officers more important than restaurant servers or factory workers?  Should we value teachers above farmers or truckdrivers?  In purely economic terms, supply and demand may should determine monetary compensation.  But how much we are paid has nothing to do with whether or not our work is significant.  A mother who stays home and raises her children is unquestionably worth more than the quarterback of a professional football team.  Only a handful of individuals can achieve on the football field, and because there are thousands willing to surrender large amounts of money to watch those activities, the players are well-paid.  With enough love and a little help from the Lord, anyone can become a reasonably good parent, despite the immense difficulty of it.  Good parents may be known only to their children, and their reward in monetary terms may be non-existent, but they are great in the kingdom of heaven. 

Right now close to a fifth of the working population have no job at all or they have taken work that is "beneath" them.  Some will say they will do whatever they have to do to take care of their families.  Whatever their belief system, such people are not far from the kingdom.  God is not asking us to always love what we do, necessarily; He asks us to love why we do it, to change the focus of our day-to-day work from making a living to living for Him.  It doesn't matter what the name is on the hat or who signs the paycheck; it doesn't matter if we drive a truck or fly a rocket to Mars; we work for the Master.