“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.” Colossians 3:23-24 NLT
If you are a Christian, you work precisely where God wants you to be. If you are working in a place right now and looking to leave because of the conditions of your work environment, and there is no one seeking you out to work for them, I suggest you stay there.
“C’mon, John!! How can you say that? This place is the worst!!”
Here’s why I say this: If you give it everything you’ve got, chances are it won’t be as bad as you think. And if you are giving it your all and increasing your skills, others will notice. One of two things will happen: you will be promoted or receive job offers from others.
When I was younger, I measured my job satisfaction based on how well things were going. Looking at things this way would end up being a mistake. The satisfaction from work comes from the challenges.
Because of this flawed thinking on my part, I never stayed anywhere to build a career. When the challenges built up, I would look to transfer to another job in the company or leave for another position. On two occasions, I was let go to seek other opportunities because of my poor attitude.
This all happened before I completely turned my heart over to the Lord.
When I turned my heart over to the Lord, my work attitude changed as I studied scripture. The focus verse is a key to my new perspective. I no longer look at my employer as my boss; I look at Jesus as my boss.
This does not mean that I do not respect my boss. As you study the Bible, you will find that respect for those in authority is a key to living a spiritual life. As far as the Christian is concerned, the people above us are placed there by God’s hands, whether they believe what we do or not.
Here’s something to consider: what if God has placed you there to be a witness for Him to this person? And you leave, and that opportunity is upended because of your quitting. Two things happen: God has to put another person in your boss’s path to witness to them, and you forfeit a blessing that God had for you to experience for eternity.
With this being said, let’s look at a couple of ways to look at our work.
“Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.” Galatians 6:4-5 NLT
“Pay careful attention to YOUR own work…”
This is important; when you start to compare what you do to that of others, one of two things happens:
- You’ll notice that someone does it much better than you. When this happens, we tend to think we’ll never be able to do it that well, and the growth in our jobs will stop.
- You’ll see that you do it much better than someone else, and by comparison, you won’t see a need to improve, and the growth in our jobs will stop.
Either way, we end up losing momentum.
The key to job satisfaction is a job well done. It comes from utilizing our unique talents and abilities to serve those around us profitably, whether it be our employers or our customers as business owners.
The next thing we need to look at is pay.
When I turned my life back to Jesus, I worked in the hospitality business. Part of that job included serving alcohol to customers; my problem was that I was involved in the recovery program at my church. I didn’t want those who suffered from addiction to alcohol to see me serving it. I felt it would validate that it was okay for them. So, I went back into a previous business.
I went back for lower pay, but I had to do it. My job increased, and I only requested that I could see a way to make more money based on performance. Based on the increase that I could provide based on my skills. I didn’t demand more money as some may do. I trusted that God would give the increase as long as I was faithful to using my skills and improving my skills.
This was a breath of fresh air for my employer.
The result was that business increased, and so did my pay. I quickly started to get bigger bonuses with each month that passed. My finances improved. I was able to give more to my church, which continued until God opened a door for my wife and me to move down south for another opportunity.
Now, I work in the car business, and as a rule of thumb, if you give your notice to leave, that is generally your last day. Not in this case. I gave them a month’s notice so they could find a replacement for my position.
And when I left, they gave me a parting bonus. Unheard of in the car business.
I say none of this to pat myself on the back. I mention this because when I started to trust that God would handle the money, it took a barrier away from my employer and myself. I loved the people I worked for and wanted their business to succeed.
There is a law of compensation, and it goes like this: your pay will be determined by:
- The need for what you do
- Your ability to do it
- The difficulty there is in replacing you
When we become good at what we do, and there is a demand for what we do, our employers will not let us leave because of money. And if that isn’t the case, your reputation will get out in the marketplace, and someone will hire you for what you are worth. But let God handle this.
Heavenly Father, thank You for the opportunity to produce. Thank You for providing a system of commerce where we can increase our skills and income based on the value we provide.
I pray that You provide the courage and faith to know that all increase comes by Your hand and that our employers are simply a conduit that You use to compensate us for the value we provide.
I pray that my employer can see You through everything I do and that my attitude glorifies You.
Please give me the desire to increase my skills to provide more value to my employer.
In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen!!
