Daily Devotionals
Devotional: September 6th
“And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”
Contrary to the attitude of some, work is not a curse; it is a blessing. Before sin ever entered into the world, God assigned Adam to tend the Garden of Eden. It was after man had sinned that God cursed the ground - but not work itself. He decreed that, in trying to make a living from the ground, man would encounter sorrow, frustration and sweat.
One old worthy said, “Blest work! if thou dost bear God’s curse, what must His blessing be?” But work does not bear His curse. It is part of our essential being. It is part of our need for creativity and for self-worth. It is when we succumb to idleness that the danger of sinning is greatest. And it is often when we retire from an active life that we begin to fall apart.
We should not forget that God commanded His people to work (“Six days shalt thou labor” HYPERLINK "javascript:" ). Men tend to overlook that and to emphasize the other part that commands them to rest on the seventh day.
The New Testament labels the loafer as “disorderly” or “unruly” and decrees that if a man won’t work, he should be allowed to go hungry ( 2 Thessalonians 3:6-2 Samuel :).
The Lord Jesus is our supreme Example of a hard Worker. “What days of toil were His! What nights of laboring prayer! Three years in the ministry made an old man of Him. ‘Thou art not yet fifty years old,’ they said, making a rough guess at his age. Fifty? He was only thirty! I will make no secret of it.” (Ian MacPherson).
Some people develop an allergy to work because their job has some disagreeable feature. They should realize that no job is completely ideal. Every occupation has some drawback. But the Christian can do it to the glory of God, “not somehow, but triumphantly.”
The believer labors, not only to supply his own needs but to help others who are in need. This adds a new, unselfish motive to work.
Even in eternity we will work for “his servants shall serve him”.
In the meantime we should follow Spurgeon’s advice: “Kill yourselves with work, and then pray yourselves alive again.”
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