We were made to work by a God who works. God created the world and then He rested. God created Adam and gave him work, too (Genesis 2:15). Work that was good and life-giving. As sin entered the world, like everything else, work was marred. Instead of believing our work actually matters, we dread the daily 9 to 5, dreaming about the weekend and staring down the clock. I don't think God intended work to be this way.
What if we worked like the tasks we do everyday, the conversations we have in our cubicles, and the projects we complete, all have value if we do them for the Lord. As people made in God’s image, work gives us an opportunity to serve the communities we’re in. To solve problems. To simplify processes. To better the common good. To create beauty. To use our money to help people. To glorify God as we integrate our work with our love for Him.
For us to work in this way we need to be dependent on God for our strength. For us to work with integrity and honesty because our identity is not in what we do but in what Christ did for us. For us to take an interest in people’s lives and speak truth into our workplaces because of our love for Christ. For us to make honoring Christ more important than our title, salary, or reputation.
God is with us in our work because He is in us. We are all workers for the Kingdom of God. He has prepared good works in advance for us all to do (Ephesians 3:20). Work that is unique to how He made us and the gifts He gave us. So if work matters this much, shouldn’t we do it well and with joy?