My Devotionals

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters (Colossians 3:23)

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandments were, he replied, “Love the Lord your God…and…Love your neighbor as yourself.” As we saw last week, excellent work is one way in which we fulfill Jesus’s command to love God by revealing his character of excellence to those around us. As we’ll see today, excellence is also necessary for keeping the second commandment in our work.

As Christians, we can’t say we are seeking to love our neighbor as ourselves and then do our work with mediocrity. Think of the extreme example of a Christian doctor. While that doctor may pray with her patients, share the gospel with her co-workers, and donate money to her church, her most basic form of ministry is in being an excellent doctor. If she were a mediocre medical professional, her patients’ lives might be at risk. The doctor’s...

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)

The purpose of our work is no different than the purpose of our lives, namely to glorify God in everything we do (1 Corinthians 10:31). “Glorify” is a word we throw around so much that it can become difficult to define. As John Piper says, to glorify God simply means to “reflect his greatness” or reveal his character to others.

So, if the purpose of our work is to reveal the Lord’s character to the world, what exactly are his characteristics? The Bible describes God in many ways, but it is his character of creative excellence that is perhaps most visible to us. You can’t stare out at the Grand Canyon and not marvel at the masterful work of God. You can’t go to a zoo without appreciating the creative supremacy of the Creator. And you...

People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He [Jesus] has done everything well,” they said. (Mark 7:37)

Today’s passage is one of my all-time favorite descriptions of Jesus: “People were overwhelmed with amazement. ‘He [Jesus] has done everything well’” [emphasis mine]. As followers of Christ, this passage should give us great pause. As those seeking to imitate Jesus in every way imaginable, can we say we are doing everything well? Can we say we are doing everything with excellence at work and at home?

The fact is that all of us have areas of our lives where we are falling short of Jesus’s excellent standard. I think this is truer today than ever before. Why? Because now more than ever, we believe the lies that we have to do it all, be it all, and have it all. We are overcommitted, overwhelmed, and overstressed, making a millimeter of progress in a million directions because we fail to discern the essential from the...

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

What’s the Biblical response to the mounting anxiety in our lives? As we saw in the first week of this devotional series, we must first confront our anxiety honestly, recognizing our stressors for what they are. Second, we take the Lord up on his offer to cast our anxieties and worries upon him, for He cares deeply for us. Finally, as we will see in this final devotional of this series, once we have confronted our anxieties and cast them upon the Lord, we must carry on in the work the Father has created us to do. We rise up from our confession full of faith. We believe that God has graciously taken our anxieties upon Himself and that He has become our burden-bearer. We trust that, because God cares so much for us,...

Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. (Psalm 55:22)

Last week, we opened up about the realities of stress and anxiety related to our work. We noted that there are a whole host of workplace issues and experiences that contribute to our ever-increasing levels of stress. Many of these things are out of our control. And that is precisely what causes us anxiety. On the surface, there appears to be nothing we can do to remedy this unfortunate reality, but as we began to explore yesterday, that is simply not true. The Bible speaks extensively about the issue of anxiety, offering us practical ways to relieve the stress in our lives.

First, as we saw previously, we must recognize and confront our anxiety. Today, we will look at the second thing Scripture commands us to do with our anxiety: cast it upon the Lord. In 1 Peter 5:7, the Apostle Paul instructs us to, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because he cares for you.” Once...

Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. (Proverbs 12:25)

Let’s face it: We are overwhelmed with worry and anxiety, perhaps more so than we are willing to admit. We are overcommitted, overwhelmed, and overstressed personally and professionally. The problem has gotten so bad that the World Health Organization has labeled anxiety the “health epidemic of the 21st century.” Much of this can be explained by the fact that there appears to be more to worry about than ever before. Outside of our offices, we are confronted with global stressors such as terrorism, financial insecurity, moral decay, and a ridiculously divisive political climate. At work, anxiety hits even closer to home as new product launches, tighter deadlines, difficult bosses, inadequate compensation, and the demand to always “level-up” in our careers all punish us with worry. In short, Satan offers us no shortage of things to stress us and distract us from the work the...

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10)

This past week, we have celebrated the arrival of the Promised One. We have seen and worshipped him. And because of him, our lives are now and forever changed.

But, as we have spent time in Bethlehem, pondering this great event, we must now start out on a new journey. A journey that will ultimately lead us to Jerusalem. For here, Jesus will complete the task for which he was born. In Jerusalem, on the hill of the skull, the real surprise of God’s great rescue plan will be revealed. Here, the Promised One will die and rise again. Sin, loss, the grave, and the enemy will all be defeated. God will have won the victory and death will have been swallowed up, bringing new life to us all!

And with this new life comes a new season of anticipation. We live now in expectation of Jesus’s second coming. We wait and hope for his arrival once more to...

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will...

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be our peace. (Micah 5:2-5)

We all feel the weight of the loss that took place in the garden so long ago. In every aspect of our lives—work, play, friendships, family, dreams, and desires—we experience the sense that things just aren’t the way they were meant to be.

Conflict with co-workers deters our most valiant efforts at doing what we think is right and best. Anxiety overtakes us when we find ourselves striving to...

To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed 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 you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living. The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he...