Following Jesus At Work (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. It is such a joy to come together once again to spend a few moments in God’s word and pray together. This week, we are talking about work- God’s original design. God is a God of order, structure and design and He has created/ designed us to work and God has promised us that He will bless the work of our hands. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verses 7 through 10, ‘For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.’ Verse 10 is an emphatic declaration where the apostle Paul is saying if anyone will not work, he shall not eat. Following Jesus has so much more to do than just on a Sunday morning but it is what we do throughout the week. Unfortunately, sometimes it is said that Christians are so heavenly minded that we are earthly no good, that happened to the followers of Christ at Thessalonica. They became so focused on Jesus’ return, that they put away their things and they waited doing nothing. The apostle Paul was bi-vocational minister who was also a tent maker and he was not afraid to use himself as a role model of a diligent worker. In effect he was saying that if you unwilling to work, you will not eat. This doesn’t mean that the bible wants us to be workaholics or to disrespect those who cannot work. We see in the book of Genesis, God told Adam and Eve to take care and tend the garden. God put Adam in the middle of the garden and He gave him the responsibility to cultivate the garden. The book of Genesis also says that they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This paints a picture where God was accustomed to meeting with Adam and Eve, perhaps while they were tending the garden, God would visit them and teach them the secrets that lay hidden in His creation. Perhaps, God would have taught them how to leverage what was available in creation, coming up with new ideas, new things and new possibilities. When you and I go to the workplace, you are not alone, God is there with us because we are His servants. He will impart to us the skills, the strategy on how we can develop ourselves. God wants to co-labor with us, our ground is blessed and all the work of our hands are blessed. Do we have chores and work that we have to do throughout the week? Do them without complaining. Thank the Lord for the opportunity to serve and glorify God by using the gifts that He has given us. As God gives us seasons of rest, thank God and praise Him for those wonderful opportunities. Be reenergized and work ahead. Let’s pray, Father, we thank you for this time, we thank you for your word, we thank you that you have called each one of us to work, to labor. Your promise is that you will bless the work of our hands. We pray that you will establish us even as we do the things that we have been called to do, we thank you that you are with us, we are not alone. We pray that we will tap into the Holy Spirit who will empower us and strengthen us, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week’s theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week’s devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.