Blog: LIVING STONES- Your Work Is What You're Born To Do

Your job is what you’re paid to do.

YOUR WORK IS WHAT YOU’RE BORN TO DO:

When someone asks, ‘What do you do?’, they’re not really asking about your paycheck. They’re asking about your purpose.

Work was God’s idea before it was reduced just be a job. Work wasn’t a punishment for sin. It was part of God’s original design, given before the fall.

Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (ESV)

For Adam, “working” in the garden wasn’t just manual labor. It was priestly service.

The first “sanctuary” wasn’t a temple; it was a garden.
Tending soil was as much an offering to God as singing songs.

The Hebrew word for “work” here is “avad”, and its noun form, “avodah”, translates both work and worship.

In God’s design, your work is meant to be worship.

Exodus 3:12 When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”(Same root word — ʿābad.)

The Western ideology of dividing the sacred and the secular is simply not Biblical.

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV)

Creating margin in your time, energy and money is an act of worship sacrificing things that are of lesser value for things that matter to God.

Live in light of eternity.
Love in light of eternity.
Give in light of eternity.
Serve in light of eternity.

Your work is actually part of God’s process of focusing on becoming who he designed you to become.

Ephesians 4:28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. (NIV)

If you’ve been stealing, get a job, do some work, make some money and help others. Your work is an act of worship that is part of the process of freedom for you and it involves helping others!

Paul’s three-step strategy to freedom: stop taking, start working, start giving.

Paul doesn’t stop at “quit stealing.” He replaces the old habit with something new. Lasting change always involves a swap, not just a stop.

Your job is what you’re paid to do. Your work is what you’re born to do. Your work is worship. God uses our worship to establish his Kingdom in the earth! And that Kingdom will last forever!

We are living stones being built into an expression from God that outlives and out lasts us all.

French writer and philosopher, Voltaire rejected the divinity of Christ and the Word of God. He predicted in 1764 that the Bible would be forgotten within 100 years of his life. Within 50 years of his death, the Evangelical Society of Geneva bought his house using it for a Bible distribution center. The very printing press Voltaire used to promote his skeptical ideas then became used to print Bibles that were stored and distributed right out of his home.

1 Peter 1:24–25 All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever… (ESV)

We are living stones being built into an expression from God that will last beyond our lives and beyond the lives of our critics.

GP2RL: Sit with the idea of creating margin in your time, energy and money as an act of worship before the Lord. Then, get to “work!”

TIPS FOR DOING THIS WELL THIS WEEK:

This week, take time to think and pray about creating margin, meaning room in your life to give. Look at three areas:

Time: What could you cut or cut back on to free up 1–2 hours a week for serving others?
Energy: What drains you without adding value? What would refresh you so you have more to give?
Money: What spending could you trim to create a regular amount you can share with someone in need?

Then:

Write a simple plan: one change in each area.
Share it with someone you trust who will check in with you.
Get to “work!” Put your margin to use serving and blessing others this week.