Consistent Service
Over the last couple months I’ve been extremely busy. Like most American’s today, I am driving around in my SUV from one appointment to the next; attending church functions, get-togethers with friends and family, all the while tending to my everyday responsibilities at Ligonier Ministries. This amounts to a lot of work. Sometimes all this work is burdensome, and the joy of working for Christ’s kingdom here on earth is nowhere to be found.
After reading the second chapter in Genesis, I was struck by the fact that before the fall, the Lord God took Adam and placed him in the garden to work it and keep it (v. 15). This means work in and of itself is not a curse. Work was ordained by God to be a good thing! However, like many of the good things the Lord created, due to the fall and our resulting corrupt nature, work is now skewed.
While much of the world sees work as a way to serve themselves and their own self-interests, Christians are to see their work as a way to serve God and His kingdom. You might be saying, “It’s easy for you to see your work as a way to serve God; you work at a ministry.” While that is true for the most part, I want to share a true story with you that should encourage those who work at even the most mundane jobs.
At the last missions conference I attended, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson gave an account of how the man who led him to Christ was himself converted because of a woman who was a professional typist. This typist was one among many who spent her entire day typing. One day, when this man went walking through the room of typists, he stopped in amazement at the consistent typing sound that was apparently coming from one lady. He wondered, “Why is this lady typing so consistently?” That man later found out the typist was a Christian, which God ended up using as means to bring Dr. Ferguson to Christ. The point of the story: the consistent and efficient work of one Christian was used by God to help bring one of today’s greatest Christian scholars to Christ.
Working to serve God is the Christian’s goal. It can be as simple as using your gifts and talents in a consistent and humble way. As Paul says in his epistle to the Colossians: “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (3:17).
