"The Problem with Working for God" - Week 17
Spring Week 17
“The Problem with Working for God”
Photo credit D. Kelly @ Grant Co., WV
REFLECTION
Question of the day: How can we read the Word with
God?
A DEEPER LOOK
Read:
Read:
Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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Saturday
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Sunday
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This week’s verses remind us that
we can’t compartmentalize our life. Colossians
3 will bring this into focus – very clear focus.
IMAGINE THIS
It was spring break and I was simply enjoying
life on the porch. The breeze, birds, warmth of the sun. I wanted to do
something just for me. So I grabbed my reader and scanned for something
mindless to read. When my finger slid too far to the right my Bible opened. And
it irritated me. I slid the reader down with a sigh. I didn’t want to read the
Bible, not now anyway. My work requires me to dig into the Word. But today? Today
I just wanted to be ‘me’.
When I felt convicted, I knew I had a
problem. Was I becoming gospel hardened? Was there something wrong with my
desire to be just be human for a while?
I sat down at the computer, Bible on my
lap, pen and notebook beside me and considered my dilemma. My ministry, my job, requires a lot of reading,
study, research. Yet somehow, reading
remained my favorite pastime. In my downtime, I like to read mindless novels
with happy endings. So for me, reading is both work and pleasure.
This particular day, as I started to work,
I had a thought that I should write from my heart. A risky consideration as
revealing my heart makes me vulnerable. Vulnerable to criticism and some
super-spiritual-side-ways-glances. Opening my heart exposes me for public
ridicule, not an easy thing to set yourself up for…so here goes nothing…or
maybe something…
Over the past few decades, my life’s
journey has revealed a problem with working
for God.
Although I am not in the public eye, working
for God – in any capacity – comes with a huge problem. Sometimes the work
preparation takes the place of developing a personal relationship with Him.
There, I said it. The Coach who insists that the most important thing a
Christian can do is enter into, and develop, a personal relationship with God, questions
her ability to do so.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel Him. I trust
Him. I love Him. But I wonder if the hours I spend reading, studying, and
writing is to increase the hits on my blog or to truly share Jesus with the world.
I stress that our salvation is not all about us – something clearly supported
by The Great Commission of Matthew
28:19-20 – but there is a special need to work on – to develop – our own
relationship too. To work it out on purpose (Philippians
2:12).
+ + +
I remember being content serving the
Church and discontent working in church. The difference has always been the why
behind my do. Habit vs. relationship. Filled with God vs. being full of myself.
If you are a servant of Christ or a worker in church, you are familiar with my
dilemma. There is an innate God-shaped hole within our soul that no amount of
church work can fill…serving Christ with a personal relationship, however, not
only fills that void but eventually overflows into real life. Making us
susceptible to a lot of stuff: peace, joy, contentment, love. Things we’ll
never get merely by working in a church.
MY THOUGHTS
Journal
your thoughts here
Here are a few things the Spirit revealed
to me today regarding “Working for God”:
*Sometimes, it becomes just that: work.
*The lines between building a relationship
with God and creating a habit become blurred.
*It becomes easy to take Him for granted.
*It is easy to become super-spiritual err...religious without much substance.
*Leaves us little in the way of downtime.
*Journal your thoughts on developing a personal relationship with JESUS
here
Today is___________________ and I am
feeling
My thoughts:
Coach Kelly
#YourLifeCoachingWV #BeyondTheMirror
Published
[4/24/2018]
[4/20/2017]
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