It has been said the average American will spend 80,000 to 100,000 hours working in their lifetime. The average person in business spends 66% of their week eating, sleeping and doing work or work-related activities. This means nearly two-thirds of your time in a given week is already spent before you begin. You haven’t gone to a kid’s game, mowed the grass, spent time with your family or even gone to church. We are all too familiar with the demands on our time and energy on a weekly basis.
However, when you get to church on Sunday, the minister reminds you to “seek first the kingdom of God,” warns that each of us “will give an account for what we do with this life,” tells us that it is “what we do for eternity that matters” and may even ask you “what are you doing for the kingdom of God?”
It seems as if the preacher doesn’t understand that we have to work. In our search for a solution to this problem, we often arrive at the same answer: money. “I know the church always needs money. What I can’t give in time or effort, I will make up for with cash.” It is as if somehow our tax-deductible donation makes up for fulfilling our part in the work of the ministry.
Over time, our answer to the problem becomes a problem itself. It begins to feel like “all that church wants from me is my money!” It is almost as if we are trying to follow a book that wasn’t written for the real world we live in. God must not have really understood how busy life would be in the 21st century.
Consider this:
— We spend our most valuable, productive time at work.
— We use the very best of our skills and abilities at work.
— We have the majority of our relationships at work.
— The place we as Christians are least effective for God is at work.
The church talks about getting outside of the four walls, but the church has been living outside of those walls for years. Work is not a necessary evil. It is part of the purpose and plan of God from the beginning.
To understand how to fulfill your calling and career and increase your job performance while fulfilling your purpose, listen to this episode of Envoy: From Behind the Veil on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}
H.G. Strickland has planted churches, launched ministries and has raised up leaders across denominational lines for the past 25 years. In fulfilling that call, God has taken him far beyond traditional ministry and church leadership to lead charities, foundations, businesses and even train government leaders on Capitol Hill to operate in their identity and purpose. H.G. currently serves as a founding pastor of Kingdom Life Ministries DC, a church planted a couple of blocks from the White House. Learn more about Envoy at envoynews.org.
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