God’s Working People
The Work of Our Hands – Part III

Scripture Reading: Colossians 3:12-17

Key Verses: Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

God created us to be workers, and for our work to fulfill us and bless us. It is true that when sin entered the world by the failures of Adam and Eve, work became part of their punishment:

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:17-19)

Though work is harder than God first intended it to be, He still expects His children to be faithful to their jobs. The Apostle Paul put it this way:

Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)

Since the pandemic hit our world, a lot of people have decided not to go to work. Many stores and restaurants have closed their doors due to the lack of workers. As I write this devotional, our world’s airports are in total chaos due to the lack of workers needed to run operations.

Christ-followers that are serious about their walk with God must also take seriously their work. As the Apostle Paul wrote, if we do not provide for our life’s needs and our family’s needs, we are worse than an unbeliever.

The Apostle Paul wrote about the importance of work in the context of believers deciding who and how to help the needy. We should still use these guidelines in deciding about making donations and helping others.

If I see someone in need and they are of working age without any real reason not to work, I normally do not give my aid. It is not always easy to decide whether there are good reasons for their lack of employment, so we must rely on the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom in these cases.

Father, help believers everywhere to be the most faithful and hardworking people so they shine bright for You. Grant me wisdom as I decide who to help so that I do not enable poor lifestyles. I ask this in Jesus’s Name, amen.