IF GOD WERE YOUR BOSS
What would you do if Jesus were here on earth right now and you got to wake up every morning and go to work for Christ? How would you feel about your life, your day-to-day duties, chores, and responsibilities if God were your boss? Wouldn’t it be fulfilling and marvelous to work for someone as wonderful as God himself?
Did you know this is precisely what God tells us to envision as our daily reality? Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master/Boss you are serving is Christ. Col. 3:23-24 NLT
This truth changed my life, perspective, and experience of going to work. I have worked so many different kinds of jobs over the years. I have been working since I was 14 years old. Almost 53 years! 48 of those years was as a devoted Christ follower. As a young man, I longed for a deep, meaningful life. I yearned to make my life count for eternity and for Jesus Christ. But I was only a machinist! Then I was a cook! Then I drywalled houses. Then I sold auto parts. Then I worked nights at a video arcade. Then I worked in the parts department of a Cadillac dealership. I worked so many long, mundane hours. Then in 1986, I became a Pastor, and I worked even longer hours, serving all types of people, and facing all kinds of challenges leading, managing, and planting churches. Preaching, teaching, shepherding, and starting new ministries.
As a young man, God impressed on my heart, in a very powerful way, “Mark, you are my machinist! You are my cook! You are my auto parts salesman! You are my employee! Mark, you are my Pastor and you work for me! I am your Boss.”
I can’t begin to tell you how much this meant to me, how profoundly it motivated me. I longed for a life of significance, meaning, and purpose! God showed me that all of my jobs mattered greatly to him, that there was no insignificant work, and that no matter how unappreciated I felt at work, how trampled on, how disrespected, unjustly treated, or unrewarded, God was my real Boss, and I was working for Christ! I could get up each day and serve him with joy. I could go to work and serve him with a great attitude. God would in his own time and his own way reward my work, my efforts, my attitude, and my service to Him. This reality filled me with enthusiasm for my work. It drove me to strive for excellence in all I was doing because I was actually working for God! I was God’s full-time servant each and every day.
Do you realize this is also true of each of you? Dads you are working for God! Moms you are working every day for God! Do you really grasp that? All your sacrifices, all those days of exhaustion, you are doing it all for God! He sees it, it matters to Him, and He will reward you greatly for it all!! God will compensate you!
By the way, this is also true of you business owners, or ministry founders like me! God is my Boss, He gave me this ministry. God is your Boss, He gave you your business.
You and I work for the greatest Boss in all the Universe!
Now consider: How would your life/work change if you really believed God was your Boss? If you really believed you are waking up every single day to go to work for God?
Please take some time to think about what that would really mean. Then ask yourself, “Does the way I work, and the quality of my work reflect my belief that God is my Boss? I work for God!”
Helping you become a Strong Disciple,
Because of Jesus,
Pastor Mark Darling
