We’ve got your daily encouragement, written by Bruce Sampson.
Bible Reading:
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…
Word:
As Christians we are called to good works. While Christianity isn’t about the works that saves us, it still takes work to live the life we’ve been saved too. God’s mission has always been to partner with us to share in the beauty in all He’s created. We are set apart in His creation to co-lead and co-labor in the flourishing of what He has made. And that takes work.
We all know what work feels like. Maybe you’re a nine to fiver, an on-caller, a nurse practitioner, or a coach who is simply spent from the odd hours around the clock at the box. Whatever it is you do, you know the work has to get done at the end of the day. However, by the end of the day, we feel done in from the work itself.
God never meant for work to be weary and burdensome but a liberty and a joy. It was when sin entered the world through our rebellion from God’s instruction that we went off to work on our own without God. In our own strength, work exceeds the limits we were meant to bear alone. Some of us can endure that kind of pressure, but eventually it becomes too much for us all.
Stress and anxiety are still waiting at the door for you when you get home and ready to drive with you to work the next day. There has to be a better way we work. I love Paul’s choice words in this verse when he says that Scripture is “God-breathed.” It’s the picture that Scripture is alive. That it reads us as we read it. It’s the very instruction of God speaking into our lives when we are lost in the heat of work. It’s the air returning to our lungs every time we breath Him in.
This is how He calls us back to a work that includes Him in the working. We were all made for relationship with God. He’s not meant to be left outside in a box from our work but to be the source that sustains us through it. As we take to heart the trusting words of God found in Scripture, we grow in a life transformed by the work God has already done for us in Jesus. It’s through the finished work on the cross that we have hope in the work we do today.
Prayer:
Lord, we thank for the finished work you did on the cross through the love of Jesus. Redeem the work that we do by the words you speak to us every time we open the Scriptures. In Jesus’ name, amen!
Skillwork:
How can you engage with God’s word between your morning routine to work? It could be a song you wake up to, a podcast you listen to, or a set time during your coffee hour.
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