Are you going to work today? 
- Maybe much of your work takes place in an office. You may find yourself in front of a computer monitor much of the time.
- Perhaps you work in a plant. Your work takes place in an environment where something is being manufactured.
- You may be self-employed. You are engaged with a number of customers every day.
- Your job might involve travel. Almost every week, you are on the road, seeing clients in distant cities.
- Your work might take place in your house as you seek to provide the best care possible for several small children.
Someone has said that 75% of our waking hours are spent at work. If this is true, then your work today is the place where God will also be at work, ministering through your life. I believe that God does not see your ministry as something happening only when you are at a church gathering or when you are participating in a church program or project. Rather, ministry is what you are called to at work as the place where you are spending much of your time.
Let us consider a few realities for everyday ministry at work:
1. The primary ministry of the church each day is what we do wherever we are. For many of us, the bulk of our waking hours are spent at work. Consequently, when you go to work, you are involved in ministry because the presence of God is ministering through you, through his Holy Spirit. Sometimes this will be obvious to you. Often, you will be completely unaware of how he is working.
2. The church is the church wherever the work of the church is being done. When you go to work today, you are a part of something great as you seek to model kingdom living and kingdom values before your co-workers, clients or customers. You are doing something important.
3. Don’t underestimate the value of your work. Yes, much work can be boring or tedious. There may be an aspect to your work that seems so unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Yet, let me suggest that no matter what you do every day, God can redeem that moment and cause it to make a difference. At times, it may not be what you do but how you handle yourself in the midst of frustration and monotony that may be used by God.
4. God cares about your work and the Gospel can make a real difference wherever you are. Never underestimate the power of the Gospel being lived out where you work.
5. Begin work today with a God-centered perspective. Pray for your meetings today. Pray for your employer or employees. Pray for the time spent with customers or clients. Pray that God might redeem your work today and use it to make a difference. Pray for wisdom in both your words and actions.
Questions
I would love to hear your response to one of the following two questions:
- Who, in your work environment, do you pray for regularly?
- How might this perspective on work make a difference in your day?
Jim, I would comment that the prerequisite would be that all is well on the home front. In so many interactions with “Christian” men, they are focused on ministering outside their home to the detriment of their ministry AT home. If the wife and children do not feel that their husband/father is Christlike, they will see him as a hypocrite. Take it from one who knows…Thanks! Kim
@Kim
Hi Kim– Good point and your are exactly right. In fact, it is a given that men/women are called to minister wherever they are. One can’t ignore his marriage and children and then become a person who is committed to ministry at work. Rather, we are called to ministry in both home and work. This is never to be an either/or.