Gleanings - December 2009

What does God think of the workplace? A businessman asked his pastor this question. The reply was two words—not much.

This perspective is all too common. Many believe that work is little more than a necessary evil—something that we have to do to make money. To these people the workplace is, at best, a place to evangelize and, of course, to practice ethics. But what does Scripture say? Does God care about the workplace? If so, what is His will for the workplace?

Gleanings - October 2009

Gleanings - September 2009

Don’t succumb to the world’s definition of success. Be vigilant about attacking greed in your own life and in the lives of your associates. Model for others the reality that true lasting success is based on obedience to God.

Gleanings - August 2009

Everyone is blessed when they obey God. The best workers in any organization will be people who obey God by embracing Christ deeply enough to transform their lives and, as a result, seek to discover and fulfill their divinely-ordained life purpose. Employers should seek to call each worker into his or her individual, divinely-ordained work so that each worker can do the work of the Lord that has been assigned to them. Concurrently, as the workers are doing the work the Lord, they are enabling their organizations to obey God by fulfilling each organization's purpose. Hence, those organizations are then better aligned with God. Therefore, both workers and employers are blessed when workers find and fulfill their individual life purposes. This is the work of the Lord.

Gleanings - July 2009

Don’t support personal agendas that are not built on Christ. Love people enough to make it a priority to help them find Christ and then help them develop a life plan based on Christ. (The best way to do this is by personally modeling the reality of living a Christ-centered life.) After they have developed a Christ-centered life plan, invest encouragement, counsel, and financial resources to help them fulfill their Christ-centered plan. In this way you really help people and consequently glorify God. Furthermore, when an organization is committed to helping its workers find Christ and to discover their Christ-centered life plans, that organization will prosper and fulfill its purpose.

As unemployed workers find new work opportunities in the near future, it would be wise to consider the lessons to be learned from this recession. Indeed there are lessons for all of us, so consider the following thoughts on how to become a more valuable worker.