Putting Work in its Place: Rest - Body, Soul & Spirit (part 1)
Look familiar?
Work as a Gift
I come from a long line of very hard workers! I’ve heard some in my family call it the “Vandergriff curse”…. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but learning balance in work is definitely something I have wrestled with and still do. The words work, toil and labor are mentioned at least 400 times in the Bible, but depending on the translation and if you include all the various references some sources say that the Bible actually refers to work up to 1000 times. In Genesis chapters one and two, we learn quite a bit about work. We see that God worked for six straight days and at the close of each day’s creating, He saw that His work was good. On Day Six after making Adam and Eve, He proclaims that His work is very good! God took pleasure in His work and our beautiful earth and the heavens declare His glory!
We also see that work was a gift from God to people before the fall ever happened. He gave Adam and Eve this blessing in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” There is work involved in being fruitful and multiplying - parenting is not for the faint of heart or the lazy! Ruling over and being a good steward of this fair planet and its creatures also takes work. In chapter two of Genesis we read that “the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” More good work and He had Adam name all the animals (more work) so he would feel that pang of loneliness and long for a partner. God created Woman - and brought her to Adam to be “a suitable helper for him” and to be “flesh of his flesh”, the wife he would cleave to.
Good Works Flow out of Faith
We learn in Ephesians 2 and in James that God certainly has good work in mind for us to do as Christians! “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) The Holy Spirit speaks mightily through Jesus’ half-brother James, the pastor of the church in Jerusalem in the 1st Century, telling us, “What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing or daily food, and one of you says, to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” He goes on to tell us, “Faith without works is useless,” and “Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.” Our genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ saves us but our good works prove that there really has been a supernatural enlivening that has happened in us. That new life —Jesus’ life—can’t help but do good works!
We Can’t Earn God’s Love by Works
But here’s the rub! It is not by working harder to please God in our flesh, not by striving to keep His perfect law or to “do enough” that makes us right with Him or causes His heart to be endeared to us. NO! It is by faith in Him that He is pleased, and specifically through our faith in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son, that makes us right with Him! We bless our heavenly Father when we believe Him and take Him at His Word and trust Him, just as Romans 4:3 says: “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” And Romans 3:21-25a, the truth our faith hinges upon declares:
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
Scripture also declares that our faith and trust and taking Him at His Word will lead us to step out and do good that we never could have or would have done without His presence being within us!
We need to always remember that trusting God is a big deal! It is the center of it all. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” And we must not forget what happened in the garden at that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan’s primary strategy then and now is to undermine our faith in God (especially in His goodness and trustworthiness) and to get us to rely on ourselves foolishly! We must resist this temptation daily! Hour by hour. Moment by moment!
Unless the LORD Builds the House….
A week or so ago, I read Psalm 127:1-3.
Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to retire late, to eat the bread of painful labors; for He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.
I felt this was a rebuke or correction from the Lord for me to take to heart, because like I mentioned at the beginning of this I struggle with my relationship with work —even good work—to keep the proper balance. For me work can become something that I can get way too caught up in.
In the Lies Young Women Believe workbook study that I’m doing with teens and college students, we just worked through the section on finding balance and identifying idols in our lives. For the question that asked, “What are three signs that we are leaning too heavily on [whatever it might be]?” I wrote, “When whatever it is dominates our thoughts. When we’re irritable or even angry when it is taken away or blocked in some way.” And when “we can’t stop because it is consuming us in some way. When we stay up too late and shirk our responsibilities because we’re way too wrapped up in whatever it is.”
It hit me that although most of my life and my relationships are pretty balanced, my relationship with work is not. Too many of the signs that I wrote down point out that work can become way too consuming for me once I’m into a project. It can be so difficult for me to stop and leave things undone and trust that the Lord will help me come back to it and finish at another time!
A Prayer of Repentance
So, I wrote out this very honest prayer, asking God to put work in its proper place for me, to fill my heart with Jesus’ pure motives and help me receive His promised peace and rest. I hope it will help you grow in learning to work unto the Lord in a way that pleases Him and does not let work in any way usurp His Lordship in your life!
Father God, I struggle most with my relationship with work and how that still is too intertwined with looking for validation from people. Too often work can become all-consuming for me and I have such a hard time stopping. I am sorry that when that happens, I neglect my other responsibilities or don’t do them as well as I should. I too often work to the point of exhaustion or stay up way too late because I can’t leave a project undone. I too often forget that “unless the Lord builds the house,” or whatever I’m doing, I labor in vain! I forget that You give to your beloved even in my sleep and that rest is a gift You are often trying to give me even when I am resisting it!
I confess that I still crave success way too much and that means selfish ambition still pushes you off the throne of my heart way too often! Please dear Lord, fill me with Your selflessness, Your Spirit-led, Spirit-empowered, pure motivation. I repent again and reckon that old me dead. Help me recognize when I start over-working and when my motives have blurred back into drivenness to perform or succeed. Please take over in my heart and let me live out of Your heart of humility, love and true selflessness.
Help me stop when its time. Help me be satisfied with You and with unfinished work—trusting you will help me finish it at the right time. Please fill me with Your Holy Spirit and forgive my corrupt ways. Cleanse me of every form of greed. Every form of discontent. Every drive fueled by the lie that I am not enough but must do more, must excel to be important or worthy or valuable. Help me rest in the value you give me. Let my work flow out of that place of being accepted, loved and fulfilled by You—My Beloved—not out of a place of insecurity that I’m striving to disprove.
Help me know that You are pleased with me. Make that all that matters in my heart of hearts! Help me believe that I am enough in You and to You and my worth is not based on my performance or success. Let me know that I am complete in Your eyes. Make my motivation LOVE—Your love for me and my love for You so that I can love others through You.
Dear Holy Spirit, please remind me often of Jesus’ promised peace, when in John 14 He said, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.” Lord, by faith, I receive Your gift of rest, of limits and of internal peace. Thank you for them. And, thank you that You love me in spite of me!
In Jesus’ Name, I pray.
Staying True to Our First Love
Our Lord Jesus Christ must remain our first love always! No good work or good feeling that comes from accomplishments or achievements can ever compare to His love, so let’s be very careful not to bow down before work as an idol and pretend that it’s ok because we’re “doing it for Him.” Let’s make sure it is truly the Lord building the house and the Lord watching over our little “cities” and that we are looking to the Lord as our true Provider and not our own hands! Of course after reading this, you know I’m preaching to ME! I hope that something here has hit home for you as well and that you will join me in repentance, listening and obeying the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit when He whispers to us to keep God first and to put aside our work. When we are led by the Holy Spirit, we really will be keeping Jesus at the center of our lives!
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If this subject hit home for you, stay tuned, because there is more to come in this series on Finding Balance in Our Work!
Also, I have pieces in Journey into Trust that would be helpful in reminding you to keep Jesus at the center of your life. I hope you’ll consider getting a copy.
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