Full-time ministry? Then she heard it again. And what happened next shocked even her. Then she broke down and cried. That was the last thing she wanted God to lead her into — and certainly not in this manner!
Fast forward to today. A great many years ago, King David in his latter years must have pondered this question too. Because in Psalm 37, he wrote about this very issue.
The whole psalm is worth meditating on, but two verses stand out for me. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act. Our Heavenly Father, our perfect employer and master, desires to give us the desires of our heart. But there is an important premise: Delight yourself in Him. Delight in our Father.
To delight in Him is to desire Him, as a child delights in playing with her father after he comes home from a long day at work. As a wife delights in spending a quiet evening with her husband after a long day of chores and parenting. As one delights in soulful conversations with a long-time friend. As the trees delight in soaking up the rain after a long spell of scorching dry days. As a young cub delights in hiding in the warm bosom of its mother.
To delight in Him is to desire His desires. Delight in our Father — desire Him and desire His desires — and He will satisfy you with your transformed desires. Delight in our Father, commit your decisions to Him in faith, and He will act. Fathers will do anything for their children. I know of many parents who spending hour after hour volunteering in a primary school to secure a place for their children.
How much more will our Heavenly Father, who governs the affairs of all nations and who provides even for the smallest creatures of the earth, act for you to fulfil your desires, as your delight is in Him? So, should you quit your job? Remember instead that your Heavenly Father is already working to give you the desires of your heart — the heart that is waiting to delight in Him.
Work Should I quit my job? Should you stay or should you go? Heaven knows. Yes you should! Right now! Story 1: The Ethical Banker A legal and compliance lawyer in a bank, my friend discovered that the bank was dealing in funds of questionable origins. Story 2: The Missionary Lawyer A friend reached a point in his career where he was exploring career development opportunities for the mid-term horizon. Story 3: The Drowning Executive This friend was with his company for a few years.
It's all about a decision. Dear lord I pray for a new job as well as a help mate from you lord. I believe you to provide for me a job so I can take care of who you will bless me with as my help mate.
Provide my heart desire in jesus mighty name I pray. It's not just a career, it's a calling! My employer frequently wants me to do things that cut corners and blur the moral lines with regard to intellectual property pictures, music, graphics in the projects I'm working on.
I could use some prayer for God to really guide me in what to do about my job. Since you have worked there for a long time you must have learnt a lot of things about the work. Lord, we are living in hard times and high unemployment that causes so many to be out of work, and has such a negative influence on the lives of individuals as well as communities in general, and oh Lord, if it were not for the hope that is in Christ Jesus, life would indeed be unbearable.
Use me I pray, to help and encourage those that I know and to support others as I lift my voice in prayer to You.
Hearken to this prayer and send help to those in need, I pray. My deepest desire is my husband and my children.
But I do like architecture and construction. But I had a job that conflicted with the desires of my heart. When I was sixteen I started working at the gas station, pumping gas, running credit cards, cleaning the bathrooms, but for me this was a step up from lawn mowing. But what I hated about this job was the atmosphere.
And what I hated the most was the way Black people were treated at our gas station. If you were Black and you pulled up to the full service, we pumped your gas.
And then, possibly as you were pulling out of the gas station, somebody would mutter some racial slur under their breath. Well, I hated that. It conflicted with one of the deepest desires of my heart. That I wanted people, everyone, to be treated with respect. I hate the way black people are treated here.
And I have to admit, it only conflicted with the deepest desires of my heart. It did not conflict with the surface desires of my heart. And I was afraid that if I rocked the boat or said something about the way Black people were treated at our gas station, I knew the other guys would give me a lot of grief about it.
And I was afraid the owner would probably fire me. Because his sons were the two most advanced dis-respecters at the whole gas station. So the only thing I did was treat Black people with respect myself. So I kind of felt like I was doing my share. But I kind of buried it underneath my desire to get along.
And I guess I thought there was nothing I could do about it. But looking back, I realize now I could have done something about the situation besides how I treated people myself.
All of the others would take a quarter from the cash register, take a quarter, and go buy a coke. It was a long time ago. But I never took any money from the cash register. And the owner knew what was going on. Because if I was on duty alone - so nobody else had access to the register - when I took the cash bag to his house at the end of the shift, the amount of money in the bag always matched the tape from the cash register.
And actually, I got a raise; I got a twenty-five cent an hour raise for that. So I knew he appreciated me. I treat you with respect because I treat everyone with respect. I could have said that. He would have thought about that a little bit.
And I actually believe - not overnight - but I believe it could have made a difference. What I did was pump gas and clean bathrooms. Even when I go to a gas station now, I always wash the windshields of my car just because I can do it right. If they have paper towels. It takes a paper towel to do it really right.
But, pumping gas and washing windshields was never going to be the deepest desire of my heart. But I did have this deep desire, put there by God, to treat people with respect. So how I did my job could have been as important to my calling as what job I did. So I talked to Kay about this aspect of deepest desire. Everyone is treated badly at my job. For example, whenever something goes wrong - and on big construction projects, something always goes wrong - whenever something goes wrong, the managers start blaming people in public.
A boss will humiliate you in public, or tell people you did a poor job, or send an email or a memo blaming you. And I want to focus on the part about doing your current job more meaningfully. One: Take pride in supporting yourself and your family.
And for some people, their full time job is not paid. Take pride in that. Part of your job, part of the reason you work, is so you can eat. If God gives you the ability to support yourself or your family by working, do it with pride. You may not be able to support yourself completely through your work, but still, whatever ability God gives you to work, do it with pride. And this happened to me about five or six years ago. I got laid off from a ministry job that I thought God had called me to.
So this was very confusing to me. I thought God had called me to this job. I loved it, I did it for almost ten years, and then I got laid off. I know God must have another job like it that God is calling me to.
So for five or six months, I was looking for another job of the same kind, in the field of faith and work. Meanwhile, every month, the mortgage has to be paid.
So I decided to start looking for jobs outside of this narrow specialty I thought God had for me. And eventually, I felt completely at peace with that. Never before had I felt it would be ok to get a job primarily to earn a living. The second one is: Be generous to others, both on the job and elsewhere. The first part repeats the value of good hard work.
But I want to talk about giving generously to others in need at your work place. How can you be generous to those you work among? So I wonder if the next step could be even more outrageous. So the headmaster comes to fire him. Or what about volunteering for a task that nobody else wants to do? Like David did with the Israelite army against Goliath. Or what about listening to someone? Or even praying with them in a crisis.
Number three is: Work so that other people in your workplace will respect the way you live. The verse that goes with this one is: "Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.
So the first part and the last part of this passage are about hard work and supporting yourself with your hands.
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