Worship at Work

Do you worship your job? I hope you would say NO! Studies show that most Americans don’t even like their job so they certainly wouldn’t worship their job. Even if you don’t like your job, if it has all your attention and if it is what you spend the majority of your time doing then it might be what you worship.

Let’s say you don’t worship your job…Do you see your job as a form of worship? Okay, after you finish laughing at me for even asking this question, consider this. If you know Jesus, you should be able to worship at work. In fact, your work should become a way of expressing your worship. Now if you’re really scratching your head may I give you three things to think about if you want to turn your work into a form of worship:

God worked in the act of creating the heavens and the earth. He created the first man to work in the garden. Work was created by God. Work is part of the human condition. We all work. Maybe you work at cleaning bedpans from hospital rooms. Maybe your work is in a corporate office. Maybe you work in the classroom maybe work in your kitchen and living room. You were created to work.

Work often dominates your time. Think about how much time you spend at work versus how much time you spend doing everything else. My guess is, this is the majority of your day. So do you think God would waste this incredibly important aspect of your life? Do you think God created work to be separate from your worship? Don’t you think God wants you to give this much time in your schedule back to him as a form of worship?

The way you turn your work into worship is to view your job as a vocation. No Christian has a career- they have a calling. No follower of Jesus has a job – they have a ministry. Your calling may be in the home as a parent, your calling may be in the government, your calling may be to the corporate world or it may be in the church world.

Vocation means the Lord places you somewhere he wants you. He put you there to make an impact. He expects you to serve him at work.

Ephesians 6:9 tells us that we work for Jesus. Notice that this verse is written both to masters and to servants. It tells servants how to work for somebody well. It tells masters how to lead well.   In both cases, the motivation to work well is the same…  Work like you’re serving Jesus.

When you get up and go to work tomorrow imagine that Jesus is your boss. How hard would you work if you knew Jesus wrote your paycheck? How happy would you be at work if you knew that Jesus was your immediate supervisor? God’s people should be good workers. God’s people should be pleasant workers. God’s people must be ethical workers. No one should be more loyal, no one should be more trustworthy, no one should be a harder worker than the believer in Jesus Christ.

Here’s the final way to turn your work into worship… Remember, you bring the Holy Spirit with you when you go to work. If you know Jesus Christ personally, then you have his Holy Spirit living inside you. That means wherever you go you take the Holy Spirit with you. Imagine that every day at work is a “bring your family to work” day. The family that you bring with you, however is your Father’s Spirit.

It’s his Holy Spirit that gives you the power to handle challenges at work anyway. It’s his Holy Spirit that gives you the ability to work for a difficult boss. It’s his Holy Spirit that should make you different than other employees at work. Keep in mind what the Bible says in Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”  Tomorrow when you get up and go to work- worship Jesus by the way that you work.