My Devotionals

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.' Jeremiah 29:4-7 (NIV)

We began this devotional series considering the question of whether or not our work matters. Over the past few weeks, we found that the Bible’s answer to that question is an unequivocal “Yes!”

Our work matters because God Himself is a worker and we have been created in His image and likeness. Work is a part of who God is and, as such, it is a part of who we are. It is in our DNA. We work because our Creator first...

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Genesis 2:15 (NIV)

Work is not a new thing. It is not some evolutionary survival technique that developed and then went sideways, enslaving humanity in an endless cycle of toilsome labor. Nor is work a more recent invention of the humanist project seeking to gain power, prestige, and material dominance over one’s neighbor.

No, from a biblical perspective, work was a part of the plan from the very beginning. It was a component of God’s good design from the get-go. When the Creator (worker) God crafted human beings in His own image and likeness, the ability, necessity, and power to work was embedded deep within us. God works, so His creatures work. In this manner we truly are, to borrow the crude expression, “a chip off the old block.”

Not only are we workers, but we are workers with a specific task. We are meant to carry forward God’s grand and wondrous building...

This is what the Lord says—the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands? It is I who made the earth and created mankind on it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts. Isaiah 45:11-12 (NIV)

When asked to describe who God is and what He is like, most Christians tend to give an account of His divine attributes. They will passionately proclaim that God is good, loving, holy, wise, or omnipotent. However, what is almost never mentioned is the notion of God as a worker. For whatever reason, most overlook, or at least do not actively consider, this glaring reality of who God is.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

This is the first verse of the first book on the very first pages of the Bible. It is the first time we are introduced to the God who is there. It is also the beginning of the whole story of...

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8-11 (NIV)

We all want to be affirmed in what we do. To be recognized for our efforts. To have them confirmed and heralded as good, meaningful, and beneficial. This is one of our most primal longings. We thrive on approval. To hear the words “good job” or “well done” immediately stirs up something deep inside of us. Something that moves us to be more passionate, more diligent, more intentional. This is the power of affirmation. It helps us to see that our...