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Women@Work

Placing Work before God

"Lord, I promise, tomorrow!" Tomorrow comes and you sheepishly whisper once again, "Lord, I promise, tomorrow!" Then after months of promising God "tomorrow," you resign yourself to the fact that you are just too busy, especially with your crazy work schedule, to spend time in prayer or in the Bible. "After all," you reason, "God gave me this job and He knows better than anyone the unreasonable demands and time constraints being placed on me. Right?"

Have you ever felt this way? Well, this was my life for many, many years. The alarm clock would go off and I would begin my marathon day, racing against time. Then one day I shared my frustrations with a close friend. I opened my heart about my life revolving around my work and blurted out, "I haven’t had a devotion in months!"

As I was speaking those words, the thought hit me: Work is my life. As a single woman striving for professional status, I had abandoned my first love, God, in pursuit of a fast-paced career in human resources. After listening to me, my dear friend Lina responded with something so simple yet profound that it changed my life. She said, "The only thing that keeps me sane is spending time in the Word of God. I am committed to devotional time every day!"

I remember being "wowed" that she spent daily time in the Word despite her hectic schedule. Honestly, this was revolutionary! I don’t think I actually knew another professional who wasn’t a minister or preacher who did something so radical.

As our conversation progressed we talked about the importance of spending time in the Word of God and the blessings, refreshment and intimacy that came from this time. She encouraged me not to be so consumed with the day’s events that those things took higher priority than my relationship with God. Years later, I see how her wisdom and encouragement have made me a stronger Christian woman.

God commands, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Deuteronomy 5:7). He knows that when we place things before Him, like our career, our focus gets blurred, foundational truths get uprooted, faith turns to fear and a close relationship with Him is something we can only reminisce about, leaving a deep void in our heart. Just look at the life of King Solomon. We know from Scripture that Solomon was a man with great riches, wealth and wisdom. He appeared to have everything, but when he placed things before the Lord and succumbed to the lusts of this world, he broke his covenant with God and became filled with regret (see 1 Kings 11:6-13).

Pursuits outside of God are meaningless. Not until the end of Solomon’s life did he find the true value of life and pen these words in Psalm 127:1: "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain."

Having a career is great—but placing it before God leads to a lonely road, often requiring us to forsake family, friends and most importantly, our fellowship with God. The choice is so clear. We can either labor for the Lord and receive the blessings He has in store for us, or we can work our fingers to the bone, placing God on hold, striving aimlessly to be fulfilled by the false god called work.

God loves us so much that He beckons us to place Him first so we can experience a relationship with Him and reap the blessings and benefits of knowing Him in our day-to-day commitment. Only as we place God in His rightful place, above all else, we are able to overcome the devil’s schemes to keep us in workplace captivity.

Taken from Thank God It’s Monday by Kim Hackney, © 2003 by Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission of publisher.

Visit Kim's Web site at celebratingvictory.org

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