Day 21
Day 21 sums it all up, know God…
Devotional Point 4 today: We must constantly be renewing our minds…
Scripture 4 today: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For through wisdom your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.” Proverbs 9:10-11 NIV
Reflection 4 today: The answers to all questions for us about every part of life always seems to boomerang back to the simple fact of knowing God. And how does that happen? Daily focus on reading/studying His word, talking to Him in prayer, and fellowshipping with others who are also committed followers…
Other Notes: I hope you have enjoyed this deep dive into the eternal purpose of your work. Tomorrow we start on a week-long look at the various name of God and how we integrate that into our prayer lives. Invites our later…
Day 20
Day 20 shows us what happens when we focus on what God is doing in us and not what He is dong for us…
Devotional Point 4 today: God must have a better one in store for you. That may be true. But it might not be, and God would be good just the same…
Scripture 4 today: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Genesis 50:20 NIV
Reflection 4 today: Joseph had a heart for God from a very young age. But he was subjected to 3 very intense formats of abuse, any one of which would make most of us walk away. Somehow, he didn’t lose heart, and kept focused. No matter how strong your heart for God is, there may be some severely abusive things that happen to you, things that way past unfair. But God is interested in our long term dedication through all the ups and downs…
Day 19
Day 19 gives us the solution to what age can do in our work…
Devotional Point 4 today: You have the Creator God who is “able to do immeasurably more” than you can imagine dwelling within you!
Scripture 4 today: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,” Ephesians 3:20 NIV
Reflection 4 today: I am as guilty as anyone on the subject of last of belief in God’s ability to do extraordinary things in the work part of my life. Although in the last 5 years I have prayed for this and seen iot in action. When something immeasurably great happens, Satan is usually whispering over my shoulder saying “yes, but that was a one-off fluke”… I have come to realise that what he says in 1 John 3 about my desires when I am following His Commands is just the tip of the iceberg…
Day 18
Day 18 digs into one of the most difficult things for us to do, rest…
Devotional Point 4 today: rest is one of the most powerful ways we can preach the gospel to ourselves…
Scripture 4 today: “For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:11 NIV
Reflection 4 today: I see a lot of people getting quite formal about the observance of the Sabbath, kind of like the Scribes and Pharisees did in Jesus day. So, I have been a less-than-fastidious observer of it, I react quite badly toward what appears as legalism. I am striving to hear from God 24/7, so no different on any day. I think what might need to be different is the definite demarcation for work reasons, just need to block out focused work. Occasional emergencies, but only emergencies…
Day 17
Day 16 shows us the way God’s message gets through to the world we live in, through our work…
Devotional Point 4 today: We live surrounded by darkness in a desperate world for something excellent and true…
Scripture 4 today: “But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. 1 Peter 2:9-10 MSG
Reflection 4 today: We know that the only way to tell others about anything is to show it, whatever it is by action not by words. We live in a world where words are meaningless. Telling people of the night and day difference in my life can only come from seeing it in action, from the work of the work in everyday life. Which first means you need to be in.a place where that can be evident, and then you have to do it. so, be there and do it…
Day 16
Day 16 shows us the way God’s message gets through to the world we live in, through our work…
Devotional Point 4 today: We live surrounded by darkness in a desperate world for something excellent and true…
Scripture 4 today: “But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. 1 Peter 2:9-10 MSG
Reflection 4 today: We know that the only way to tell others about anything is to show it, whatever it is by action not by words. We live in a world where words are meaningless. Telling people of the night and day difference in my life can only come from seeing it in action, from the work of the work in everyday life. Which first means you need to be in.a place where that can be evident, and then you have to do it. so, be there and do it…
Day 15
Day 15 gives us a look at the importance of dealing well with your time…
Devotional Point 4 today: “Time-stewardship is a command!”
Scripture 4 today: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16 NIV
Reflection 4 today: Making the best use of your time is actually hard work all on its own. But when you learn how important it is from God’s perspective, then you have do double-down on your efforts. Time is the most valuable commodity we have, it can never be repeated, and is in fact the only thing that can never be repeated. It is clearly one of the ways we can deliver maximum spiritual leadership to the world we live in, our ability to seize and maximise our use of time…
Day 14
Day 14 gets to the heart of the motivation to work, check it out…
Devotional Point 4 today: work matters today because it impacts the rewards you will inherit for eternity!
Scripture 4 today: “The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor.” 1 Corinthians 3:8 NIV
Reflection 4 today: In a whole lot of areas, Paul was a man before his time. In the last 50 years Western civilisation has wrestled with all the different ways to make people more productive. Turns out the only meaningful reward that motivates people is recognition. Recognition that they are the best at what they do, and that they get results. Turns out the biggest and best reward we get for our work is the reward of the recognition by the Father that we were “all in” and did the very best that could be done…
Day 13
Devotional Point 4 today: The physical, material things you produce at work today matter.
Scripture 4 today: “Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land forever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.”
Isaiah 60:21 NIV
Reflection 4 today: In the end, all the wealth and riches that accrue to the Kingdom will arrive back in a Jerusalem. But they will not float in by themselves. The verb “possess” is a very important word here because this requires work, and people have to do that work, and it needs to be their best work. We need our best work now and every day for all eternity, all these things happen by work…
Day 12
Day 12 introduces a concept that we don’t talk much about, the smell of results…
Devotional Point 4 today: Work in a way that spreads the aroma of Christ today!
Scripture 4 today: “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” 2 Corinthians 2:15 NIV
Reflection 4 today: The discharge or incense has been a part of all religious ceremony until the last few decades, it still is in some Catholic Churches, but not Protestants. It was also part of Roman victory parades where the captives were marched through Rome and then executed. In our day, it is associated with the smells of home cooking and the peace of the home. We all know when something smells good and bad. Our work smells really good to anyone and everyone who gets near it what a great way to describe the work of the work of Christians…
Day 11
Day 11 gives us the focus on why god has us working like He does…
Devotional Point 4 today: we are to act as his agents of redemption…
Scripture 4 today: “He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” Matthew 13:33 NIV
Reflection 4 today: I did not know this, but the concept of “yeast“ is used throughout the Bible in a fairly negative connotation, both in the Old Testament and the New one. I’d always been taught it was in a positive one, sort of explaining the growth of the Gospel in people’s hearts. But here Jesus is not overtly saying it positively or negatively, except to show us that things like yeast when put in flour will cause it to rise big time…
Day 10
Day 10 gives us the context for every dozy of our lives going forward: all power…
Devotional Point 4 today: It was about what he did while he was going.
Scripture 4 today: “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” Matthew 28:18-19 NIV
Reflection 4 today: The whole experience for these 11 guys must have been unimaginable. They have just spent three years with him and their relationship has gone from a fairly surface to extreme and deep friendship. There is only 40 days from the resurrection to this departure and in that time they see a completely different set of things than the entire three years before that. And then they suddenly find out that he is actually the God of the universe. Gives us a context to “all power“.
Day 9
Day 9 gives us the focal point of all of Christianity: Love…
Devotional Point 4 today: “Love your neighbor as yourself” was a complete sentence…
Scripture 4 today: “And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:39 NIV
Reflection 4 today: there are a total of 613 commandments that these guys were talking about. Could have been quite a daunting question, but Jesus turned the entire thing around on them. However, in doing so he cuts to the heart of the difficulty we have in every day life: loving our neighbours. This is not a tactic to use to share the gospel or anything else, it is an end in its self. We have been taught that this is a tactic, part of our transformation is understanding just tell important this is on its own…
Day 8
Day 8 gives us the reasons we can so so well at work, “immovable”…
Devotional Point 4 today: Your work matters because it is a means of glorifying the character of God…
Scripture 4 today: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV
Reflection 4 today: all of our days are filled with things that “move“ us, however Paul is saying that we are not to allow anything to move us, good or bad. Sometimes good things can move and distract us just as much as bad. He wants each of us to approach each day and every part of that day with a blank slate, doing it all for the glory of our God. When we grasp and understand the power of the resurrection in our lives, we are focused on the daily work of the work in glorifying Him, and nothing moves us…
Day 7
Day 7 gives us the secret to success in work, it is called working with your whole heart…
Devotional Point 4 today: working in response to unconditional favor is intoxicating…
Scripture 4 today: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,” Colossians 3:23 NIV
Reflection 4 today: In Paul’s day, 50% of the population were slaves. These words are just as important for us today as they were 2000 years ago. We are taught from an early age to keep our feelings and our own emotions about work to ourselves and “get on with it“. Here, Paul is telling us that we need to put our “whole heart“, all our emotions into our work. This is such a rare trait, that it may be the biggest “witness” any of us can every make to those we work with…
Day 6
Day 6 gives us the view on what God is actually doing with his people here…
Devotional Point 4 today: we are all looking for a verdict for our lives—for someone to say we are worthy and our very existence is justified…
Scripture 4 today: “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10 NIV
Reflection 4 today: For us, conversion wasn’t any sort of end in itself, it was just step one in the transformation that God planned for each of us before we were born. The evidence of the transformation is the external works’ that he has for us. That Transofrmation happens partially in the actual work of the work, all the everyday stuff, and the focus and results of the works. God has things He wants to get done, and he needs transformed Christians to do it. So What is stopping us???
Day 5
Day 5 gives us tome insight into the value of work and the value of change in a work environment…
Devotional Point 4 today: approximately eighty percent of his adult life, Jesus wasn’t preaching. He was working as a carpenter…
Scripture 4 today: “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” Matthew 4:18-19 NIV
Reflection 4 today: every minute of every day is preparing us for some other minute on some other day. Jesus worked for almost 15 years as a carpenter and everyone of those days in every one of those years was preparing him for his ministry. The real truth is that most of us have no idea what God is preparing us for, we know it is something, but we really don’t know what. Which is probably best… so there are really two components to our work: what we are doing and what we are being prepared to do…
Day 4
Day 4 gives us the insight into working with our own hands…
Devotional Point 4 today: there is coming a day when work will be fully redeemed.,,
Scripture 4 today: “No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands.” Isaiah 65:22 NIV
Reflection 4 today: Most of the “work psychology” today is based around how to make work acceptable enough to get people to do the work of the work well enough to produce results for the company or agency. Not making work so good that you can hardly wait to get there every day… Clearly working directly for God Himself puts a considerably different “spin” on why we work, and causes us to put work issues on our private prayer lists to ensure we are talking with God every step of the way in it…
Day 3
Day 3 gives us a look at the future, when the ugly pain parts of work are gone…
Devotional Point 4 today: Work is hard because we still live in a fallen world.
Scripture 4 today: “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4 NIV
Reflection 4 today: Interestingly, the word “new” in these verses, means new in character, because that is God’s focus with us, our character. I’d always thought we’d go to a heaven that was somewhere else and that the whole earth would blow up and be gone, but that’s not true. Just like I have a new character, the earth will be new. I’m still the same me, but with new character, the same for the earth. So we’d better do a better job making it work better…
Day 2
Day 2 gives us the thing that underlies everything we do…
Devotional Point 4 today: Work was designed to be a very good, God-like, worshipful thing…
Scripture 4 today: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15 NIV
Reflection 4 today: Our work is something that we are given to do to make the world the way God created it. His creation was a great starting point, but only that, a great starting point. The world needed to be transformed to support the population it does today, in the same way, our lives need to be transformed to be useful to God’s plan. A transformed world with transformed people doing the transforming…
Day 1
https://youtu.be/IqQOr4Wso88
Day 1 of this new series dives straight into God’s value of work…
Devotional Point 4 today: work is God-like and a way we reflect His character to those around us…
Scripture 4 today: “Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.” Genesis 2:3 NIV
Reflection 4 today: Virtually all the commentators, just like 99% of the churches read these verses and focus on the whole concept of the rest God took after the creation. Not one focuses on the work that God did in those 6 days of work. Interestingly it was actual work that God had to do to create the world we live in. It was not just the snap of the fingers “Big Bang”, it took work, even for God. The message? Anything worthy of anything requires actual work to make it happen…
