COV LIFE BLOG

This One Life In the Workplace

Notice well that the Holy Spirit does not bid us leave our stations in order to serve the Lord. He does not bid us forego the domestic relations which make us husbands or wives; parents or children; masters or servants! He does not suggest to us to put on a peculiar garb and seek the seclusion of a monastery, or the retirement of monastic or conventual life. Nothing of the kind is hinted at! But rather He bids the servant continue in his or her service—“with goodwill doing service.” Our great Captain would not have you hope to win the victory by leaving your post! He would have you abide in your trade, calling, profession and all the while serve the Lord in it, doing the will of God from the heart in common things.

This is the practical beauty of our holy faith—that when it casts the devil out of a man it sends him home to bless his friends by telling them what great things the Lord has done for him. Grace does not transplant the tree, but bids it overshadow the old house at home, as before, and bring forth good fruit where it is! Grace does not make us unearthly, though it makes us unworldly. True religion distinguishes us from others, even as our Lord Jesus was separate from sinners, but it does not shut us up or hedge us round about as if we were too good or too tender for the rough usage of everyday life! It does not put us in the salt box and shut the lid, but it casts us in among our fellow men for their good!

Grace makes us the servants of God while we are the still servants of men—it enables us to do the business of Heaven while we are attending to the business of earth—it sanctifies the common duties of life by showing us how to perform them in the light of Heaven. The love of Christ makes the lowliest acts sublime. As the sunlight brightens a landscape and sheds beauty over the most common scene, so does the Presence of the Lord Jesus! The spirit of consecration renders the offices of domestic servitude as sublime as the worship which is presented upon the sea of glass before the Eternal Throne by spirits to whom the courts of Heaven are their familiar name.

I suggest my text to all Believers as the motto of their lives! Whether we are servants or masters, whether we are poor or rich, let us take this as our watchword, “As to the Lord, and not to men.” From now on may this be the engraving of our seal and the motto of our coat of arms! May it be the constant rule of our life and the sum of our motives. In advocating this gracious aim of our being, let me say that if we are enabled to adopt this motto it will, first of all, influence our work itself. And, secondly, it will elevate our spirit concerning that work. Yet let me add, thirdly, that if the Lord shall really be the All in All of our lives, it is, after all, only what He has a right to expect and what we are under a thousand obligations to give to Him!

Charles Spurgeon

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Heart Preparation
Read Genesis 2:15; Ephesians 6:5-7; and Colossians 3:24-25. Do you do your work as unto the Lord? What would it look like to do your work and to interact with your coworkers with every moment of your life fixed upon the kingdom of God?