Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the moreâŚHis brothers said to him, âDo you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?â And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. (Genesis 37:5, 8)
God has given you a dream for your work.Â
Maybe itâs doubling your business so that you can provide more jobs that lead to human flourishing. Maybe itâs writing a book to help others learn from your mistakes. Maybe God has given you a dream for an entirely different career than the one you hold today.Â
If you have breath in your lungs, Iâm confident that God has given you a dream for your work.Â
But Iâm also confident that there are many moments when you feel a disconnect between your dream and your present realityâa gap between what God has placed in your heart and what he has placed in your hands.Â
Joseph understood the pain of staring into that gap better than most.Â
In todayâs passage, we see God giving Joseph a voc...
For the one in authority is Godâs servant for your goodâŚ.for the authorities are Godâs servants, who give their full time to governing. (Romans 13:4,6)
Letâs face it: The brand of Christianity isnât so hot right now. By and large, non-Christians perceive us to be judgmental and unloving, increasingly retreating into subcultural enclaves to sit on Facebook to rage about âthe cultureâ rather than engage it.
Hereâs something you can do today to help solve this problem: Celebrate the good in a non-Christianâs work. More than that, tell them that you see God working through them to do good in the world.
Thatâs what weâve seen throughout this series on common grace! God gives good gifts of provision and vocational skill to âthe righteous and the unrighteousâ (see Matthew 5:45). And he works in this world through believers and non-believers alike as we see in Romans 13:1-6.
And so, while we will not agree with everything non-Christians do in their work, we are free to call out what they d...
The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. (Psalm 145:9)
I was talking with a friend recently who explained how he felt called by God to quit podcasting because of how much anxiety it was causing him.
Every one of this guyâs friends was telling him that he needed the podcast to grow his business. But he shut down the show anyway. And then, his business exploded.
Reflecting on this series of events, my friend said, âIt just goes to show that God rewards doing business his way.â
âUmmmmm, not so fast,â I said.
I went on to lovingly explain to my friend that it may be true that Godâs blessing was tied to what he perceived to be an act of faithfulness. But not necessarily. While there are certainly eternal rewards tied to working âas unto the Lordâ (see Colossians 3:23-24), temporal rewards are not always connected to our righteousness. To quote my college statistics professor, âCorrelation does not imply causation.â
Because, as weâve seen throughout this ser...
When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil?...His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. (Isaiah 28:24,26)
I was recently asked to speak to a group of pastors about Redeeming Your Time, my book that examines Godâs Word and bestselling time management books for wisdom about how we can be maximally productive for Godâs glory.
Before I took the stage, a pastor spoke and passionately called the audience to ignore âsecularâ business books. The essence of the manâs message was that, âThe only book you need is the Good Book.â
When it was my turn to speak, I knew I couldnât bite my tongue. So I addressed the pastorâs comments head on and said, âWe might not âneedâ these âsecularâ business books per se. But God in his common grace has given great wisdom to Christians and non-Christians alike and we would be foolish not to learn from them.â
I was expecting somebody to throw a rotten tomato. Thankfully, I got a bunch ...
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. (Luke 6:27)
Last week, we began exploring how our work should be uncommonly shaped by the reality of common grace: the goodness God shows to âthe righteous and the unrighteous,â his friends and his enemies (see Matthew 5:45).
Today, weâll see that common grace should lead us to be good to our enemies.
Interestingly, thatâs the context of Matthew 5:45. Jesus said, âI say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute youâŚbecause [God] makes his sun rise on both evil and good people, and he lets rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteousâ (Matthew 5:44-45).
You see it right? Jesus is saying that we should do good to our enemies because of Godâs common grace! God is so good that he longs to do good to âthe righteous and the unrighteous.â And heâs calling you and me to be the conduits for his blessings.
Now, you may not have anyone at work youâd describe as an âenemy.â But do you have a boss whoâs hard to love? Or a co...
[God] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:45)
When the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 2:8 that âit is by grace you have been saved,â he was referring to Godâs saving grace: the grace that, through Christ, saves human beings from their sins.
Separate from saving grace is the doctrine of Godâs common grace: the goodness God shows people regardless of their relationship with or faith in him.
Thatâs what Jesus was referring to in todayâs passage when he said that God âcauses his sun to rise on the evil and the goodâ (Matthew 5:45). Christ was saying that, while God is the source of âevery good and perfect giftâ (James 1:17), God chooses to give those gifts to âthe righteousâ and âto ungrateful and evil peopleâ (Luke 6:35).
So, while only Christians are recipients of Godâs saving grace, every human being is a constant recipient of Godâs common grace.
God does good to you and your atheist co-worker who claims ...
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Fatherâs commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. (John 15:9-11)
In Harry Potter and the Sorcererâs Stone, Harry stumbles upon an enchanted mirror. Unlike normal mirrors, this one does not show the reflection of the person standing in front of it. Instead, it shows a reflection of âthe deepest, most desperate desireâ of that personâs heart.
But the object inside the mirror is just a mirageâa tantalizing vision trapped on the other side of the glass. This, of course, drives the mirrorâs visitors mad with frustration.Â
But you and I both know this is a blessing in disguise. Because even if they were able to get their hands on the object of their affection, unless that object was Christ, it would inevitably disappoint.
My temptation, and I think yours, is to look ...
Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2:4)
When I was researching my next book, I read tons of dense books with âparagraphsâ that spanned entire pagesâsometimes multiple pages. Every time I approached another mammoth passage, I felt exhausted before I even began reading. It felt like the cognitive equivalent of staring up at Mount Everest before an ascent.
After complaining about my own pain long enough (first-world problems, I know), the Lord reminded me that Iâve written some long paragraphs myself. And if long paragraphs made my work feel arduous, my longwindedness probably makes your reading feel arduous too.
So I went back through the manuscript I was writing and took a machete to the document, chopping every paragraph down to size.
Thatâs a small example of one reason I think we can all give thanks for the âthorns and thistlesâ that make our work difficult: Painful work can create empathy that leads us to make...
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, âHail, king of the Jews!â And they slapped him in the face. (John 19:1-3)
God never intended for work to be painful and frustrating. According to Genesis 1 and 2, work was Godâs first gift to humankind!
But when sin entered the world, the curse broke every part of creation, including the world of work. God told Adam, âCursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for youâ (see Genesis 3:17-18).
That backstory makes the Romansâ choice of a âcrown of thornsâ for Jesus all the more interesting. Knowingly or not, the Romans used a thornâthis symbol of the curseâto crown the One whose resurrection would overturn that curse. It is precisely because Christ allowed himself to be crowned with thorns th...
When pride comes, then comes disgrace; but wisdom is with the humble. (Proverbs 11:2)
A few weeks ago, I was having dinner with one of my favorite authorsâsomeone who has sold millions more books than I have.
I was picking my friendâs brain on publishing and book marketing, when all of a sudden, he started asking me questions about marketing childrenâs books.
Given the massive respect I have for this person, I was really taken aback by his questions. âWhy are you asking me about book marketing?â I asked.
My friend replied, âBecause I have not cracked the nut on childrenâs books, and honestly, itâs been a bit frustrating. You, on the other hand, seem to have figured this out.â
After muttering some false humility, my friend cut me off by quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson: âJordan,â he said, âEveryone I meet is my superior in some way.â
I love that perspective. And my friend only had it because of the frustrating âthorns and thistlesâ he has experienced in his work (see Genesis 3:17-18).
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