Colossians 3:24 reminds us that it is the Lord Christ Who is going to pay you, giving you your full portion of all He owns. He is the one you are really working for.

Work is inherent to our existence. If a man will not work neither should he eat, at least not for free from the church doles – we have the government to take care of that!

In all seriousness, it is work that determines a man’s wealth in a free society. And wealth determines a person’s comfort and opportunities.

Work in itself is good and not evil though many have been taught otherwise. God made man then set him to work in His pristine environment that guaranteed success. It was through the rebellion that work suffered a curse and therefore became inherently more difficult by yielding thistles and thorns in addition to good crops instead of just good fruit as God designed.

The real problem with work is the propensity to define ourselves by the results of our work and to use the fruit of our work for our own pleasures and wants.

Work creates a pecking order in our world and its trappings identify the important and successful from the less important and less successful. When Christians use these same means for measuring importance and success as the world they become unfruitful and indistinguishable from the world.

God measures our work not by our income but by our outflow particularly toward eternal matters. God in Jesus encourages the storing of treasure but in heaven not on earth.

God has determined that His people will be His labor pool in the harvest that is both plentiful and ripe for the pickings. The Apostle Paul reminds us we are really working for the glory of God and the expansion of His Kingdom upon the earth as it is in heaven.

Our occupation is our means for meeting our needs while we focus upon our vocation which is making disciples of all people everywhere in the world. The work of God is for all people to believe in and follow Jesus as Savior and Lord so we will be measured by our effort toward that end.

The problem with the work of God is that it is like retirement: we don’t see much fruit from our effort today but our entire future is dependent upon our diligence today.

The easiest way to stay focused on our true work is to stay daily in communion with God then daily engage people by encouraging them toward Jesus the Savior.

It is the faithful servant whom the Master finds busy working who will be rewarded.