Week 9 - Where's God On Monday?
“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (Colossians 3:17)
Both in the marketplace and the church today, questions are being asked about the meaning of work. After all, we spend quite a bit of time at work. The average Singaporean spend some 80,000 hours on the job from the first day of employment until retirement. Some may clock more than 100,000 hours, some fewer. Most of us spend almost 50 percent of our waking hours at work. With so much time and energy devoted to work, you may be saying to yourself, “If only I could really believe that this is God’s calling!”
“If only it is God’s calling.” That perhaps is the key to the question, “Where’s God on Monday?”
Called to Be a Worker
Section titled “Called to Be a Worker”I believe every Christian should see their work as a calling. Today, we often use the word “vocation” to describe a person’s career or profession. The word “vocation” comes from the Latin vocatio, which means “a calling.”
Purposeful activity is part of God’s character and nature. The Bible tells us clearly right from the beginning of time that work is good. In Genesis 1, we read an account of work embarked on by God. The Bible begins with the announcement, “In the beginning, God created…” (
Various images are used throughout the Scriptures to describe aspects of God’s work, such as shepherd, potter, builder, architect, weaver, gardener, farmer, musician and artist. This shows that purposeful activity is part of God’s character and nature. We all find it easy to see God at work in miraculous events, but not in ordinary everyday ones. Hence, we end up with a much reduced vision of God and His work and also, sadly, a very limited vision of the significance of our own daily work. We fail to see what we do through God’s eyes. God wants to channel His blessings through your involvement in teaching, engineering, managing, child-rearing, administering, healing, trading, etc.
Called to Be a Follower
Section titled “Called to Be a Follower”The starting point therefore is that all of us are called. The Bible tells us that we are called to be followers of Jesus — His disciples. Any roles we play, vocations we are in and work we do are simply outworkings of our call to follow Him.
If we are really going to recapture a sense of God in the midst of everyday work, we will need to develop a new kind of everyday spirituality, and a new sense of awe in the ordinary. We will need to see God at work in every set of circumstances, with no part of life untouched by His presence or excluded from His purposes.
Do you see your daily work as part of your service for God and worship of Him? We attend worship services on Sunday. Notice it is called “worship service.” We gather to worship God and scatter to serve others, even at our workplace.
Eugene Peterson reminds us that “as Christians do the jobs and tasks assigned to them in what the world calls work, we learn to pay attention to and practice what God is doing in love and justice, in helping and healing, in liberating and cheering… The Bible insists on a perspective in which our effort is at the edge and God’s work is at the centre.”
This prayer of Richard Foster helps us to integrate what we do with what God is doing:
The day has been breathless, Lord. I stop now for a few moments and I wonder: Is the signature of the holy over the rush of the day? Or have I bolted ahead, anxiously trying to solve problems that do not belong to me? Holy Spirit of God, please show me: How to work relaxed How to make each task an offering of faith How to view interruptions as doors to service How to see each person as my teacher in things eternal; In the name of Him who always worked unhurried. Amen.
So where is God on Monday? Where is God when we clock in or sign in on Monday at our workplace? He is with you. See your work as your calling for that is what it is! Arm yourself with the love of God to touch lives for His Kingdom.
“In the beginning God created… And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day [Monday]” (
Let us put our discipleship into action.