On vacation a few years ago, I looked up and saw GOD written in the sky. I snapped the photo as a reminder that wherever I go, whatever I am doing, He is present.
It’s easy for me to forget about GOD, especially in the midst of work. Even after an amazing time of personal prayer and praise, the phone can ring, and it is yet another problem calling. All my thoughts of God’s love vanish like the wind blowing away His name in the sky.
Perhaps you encounter similar challenges?
May I suggest to you and myself that we memorize God’s words and practice His presence? I recommend the most revolutionary, work-life changing and sustaining 22 words I know…
“We are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10 (NASB)
Imagine getting up every day with the conviction that you are on the planet for a purpose. How fulfilled and fruitful would you be to know that you and your work matters to God and that He is pleased? Most of us do not see ourselves correctly because we are looking from the inside out. What if we could see ourselves as God sees with His loving eyes?
You Are God’s Workmanship
It is an amazing revelation to really know that we are not only God’s, but we are also His workmanship.
He made each of us uniquely. There is no one exactly like you or me anywhere. Each of us is created by God with our own individual DNA and fingerprints. We can begin to understand how we are His workmanship by looking at ourselves as a blend of five factors.
- Experiences: your background – personal, educational and vocational.
- Abilities: what you do best – talents, knowledge and skills.
- Personality: how you do best what you do – natural behavioral traits.
- Interests: what you like – people, places, things and activities.
- Values: what’s important to you – work and life purpose and principles.
Created for Good Works
God made us on purpose for good works. Let’s look for a moment at a Bible study of these two key words from the original Greek text:*
- Good: meaning “constitution or nature, useful, salutary, pleasant, agreeable, joyful, happy, excellent, distinguished, upright, honorable.”
- Works: meaning “business, employment, that which any one is occupied, that which one undertakes to do, enterprise, undertaking. Any product whatever, any thing accomplished by hand, art, industry, or mind. An act, deed, thing done.”
Now that would be motivating – a job and career filled with good works!
Most of us, however, are either unemployed, underemployed, dissatisfied or not engaged in our work. How can we actually experience being God’s workmanship created for good works?
In Christ Jesus
All of us are God’s workmanship created for good works, but not everyone has accepted yet the incredible gift of being in Christ Jesus.
For those of us who place our faith in following Jesus, our gifts (experiences, abilities, personality) and passions (interest and values) are ignited by the Holy Spirit, which manifest as spiritual gifts and God’s calling for us to minister for good everyday, wherever we are and in whatever we are doing.
Prepared for You
The most startling and life-altering thought I have ever encountered related to work is this…
The good works for which we are created
have already been prepared by God in advance.
Our job is to walk in them one step at a time.
As a 28-year owner of a global executive search firm and former human resources executive for a national restaurant chain, I was turned inside-out when I realized that my work as a recruiter was to find the person God picked for the work God prepared.
As God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, I am continuing to learn how to walk by keeping the eyes of my heart looking upward – loving God completely. Then and only then can I love myself inward correctly, which allows me to love others outward compassionately.
Just this past week as I was running errands that I thought God had prepared for me, I looked upward while walking from the grocery store to my car. I saw this image of a cross in the sky.
Thank YOU God for another reminder.
Want to know more?
For an individual or group study about being God’s workmanship created for good works, you can order booklets for Real Success at Work. If you are unemployed or misemployed seeking a new job or career, I recommend our Crossroads Career Workbook. If you are a pastor or church leader wondering about how to help people find jobs, career or God’s calling, we have a 5-pack special sale of our book Created for Good Works.
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* For deeper dives into studying God’s word, may I recommend www.StudyLight.org. You can also do more Greek text word study of Ephesians 2:10.
