Don Whitney, author of several NavPress books, is the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Here are several short, practical posts from his always-timely book, Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed. In these selected excerpts, Whitney will help us consider ways to simplify our journaling, our prayer, our Christian life in general, our priorities, and our time in Scripture. In this post on priorities, Whitney will remind you of God’s sovereignty over everything.
Bill often wonders whether he is a second-class Christian because of the less-than-Christian atmosphere he works in every day. His occupation is good and necessary for society, but it’s also a line of work known for its liars, cheats, and thieves. Vulgar and blasphemous language typically fills the air of Bill’s workplace.
For other believers, the problem at work is not a godless environment; it’s the gnawing lack of meaning to their labor. They trudge through tedious days on a job that often seems intolerably unimportant.
Can followers of Jesus work in these conditions and still maintain a close relationship with Him? Or is the Lord somewhat disappointed in them because of where they work and what they do?
God ordained work. Before sin entered the world, “the Lord God took the man [Adam] and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15). All kinds of work—paid and unpaid—are necessary in the world for us “to subdue it” according to God’s will (Genesis 1:28). People must grow food, care for children, make clothes, tend the sick, build buildings and roads, transport goods, govern the cities, and so forth.
Because God has ordained it, all work has a spiritual dimension. The Bible repeatedly commends useful, honest labor (see Ephesians 4:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:10), which shows God’s intense interest in it. When we recognize His presence in the workplace, we acknowledge His sovereignty over all of life.
Our spirituality depends upon who we are in Christ, not circumstances of our workplace.
Don Whitney
Don Whitney holds the John H. Powell Endowed Chair of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is professor of biblical spirituality and the director of the Center for Biblical Spirituality. He is the author of several books.