There’s a powerful proverb that says, “do not wear yourself out with work“. Yet, so many of us do quite the opposite. Often times this is because we get caught by the subtle trap of working for man rather than God. I know I did.

This can be an easy distraction for us to fall into. For when we work for man, we are seeking seemingly innocent affirmations such as more praises, promotions, and approvals.

However, these things cause our objectives to become consumption oriented, causing us to falsely assume our work will supply us with what we need to sustain long term happiness and fulfillment.

Yet, as we know, more money, louder applause, higher platforms and increased power never quench our deepest desire.

For these things only provide temporary relief to a soul hungering for meaning, and more stuff is never enough. In fact, we soon discover work can become a source of conflict, idolatry, and contamination in our life.

However, when we shift the focus of our work as the Bible teaches and begin working for God, some incredible things begin to happen:

1. Creativity: Work becomes an outlet for our creativity. For God is a creative God and work is often a place where our creativity and unique gifts can be implemented and shared for a greater good.

2. Contribution: Our work and creativity empowers us to impact our organization, others, and our community. As a result, rather than operating as mere consumers, we become producers of contribution.

3. Connections: We make connections with others at work. These can be both rewarding and challenging. Work offers us unique opportunities to build positive connections with others and it sharpens our character as we work through challenging ones.

4. Character: Work life experiences help shape our character. The challenges and connections we make are divine tools God can use to sharpen, shape, and strengthen the character of His people.

5. Christlikeness: Our work glorifies God as we reflect His likeness before others. For work offers tremendous opportunities for others to see our good works, impact others, and live out our our life with a faith and love that glorifies God over self.

Therefore, working for God means we work for so much more than just money – it gives our work both mission and meaning.

Living for God changes the way we look at everything – even our job. When we approach our work as opportunities to be creative, make contributions, build connections, shape character, and reflect Christlikeness, we begin seeing it as the blessing it truly is – a powerful opportunity for Kingdom impact.