Introduction
Hello all. My name is Seth and this is your daily devotion. As Christians, we know that we are called to serve God. Many of us take this calling very seriously and we work very hard to do well for Him. Work is a good thing. God works and His creation was made to do work, even from the dawn of humanity. We know this and so we are constantly working and finding new work to do. Is it possible though that we’re doing too much? Let’s go over this scripture and then I’ll explain further.
God’s Message to Those Who Work
Matthew 11:28-30: Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Work is good, but is the work we’re doing good? Are we focused on doing a task well or do we care more about being constantly busy, so that we’re never idle? This brings into question our mindset on work. Are we working for God or working just for the sake of working? If you build a well in the desert or dig a hole with nothing to bury or dig up, you’ve certainly worked hard, but what have you accomplished?
More importantly, what is the condition of your heart as you’re working? Are you simply performing task after task out of a feeling of obligation? Do you resent it? Does it burden you? Doing something for God when your heart isn’t in it is the same as building a well in the desert.
Redefining Good Work
With all of that said, allow me to rephrase my previous statement. Work is good if it has a good purpose. Instead of looking at whether God works, look at the work He does and why. We can easily see that His works have a wonderful purpose. His works bring us our needs and our salvation. He also takes great pleasure in His work. He enjoys what He does.
I think it’s very possible that we put greater value on the amount of work we do, rather than the quality of that work. If you’re passionate about Christ, it’s very easy to load your plate with every opportunity that comes your way. We feel like we should take it all on. This is Jesus we’re talking about. Doesn’t He deserve our best?
What if we’re preventing ourselves from giving our best because we’re trying to do everything? What if Jesus offers us a light burden because He wants us to focus on those few things and do them well? Isn’t one ounce of gold worth more than one hundred pounds of garbage? Which do you want to give to Him? What kind of worker do you want to be? There’s only one kind that pleases God.
Conclusion/Prayer
The problem is that we’re human and we simply can’t do everything. If we’re not careful, all those tasks we were excited to do can suddenly become burdens. When they do become burdens, we have to make the difficult decision of letting some things go, lest we be crushed by our own expectations.
That’s not what Jesus wants for us. He didn’t break our chains just to put us in new ones. Our service to Him should feel joyful and liberating. Don’t take on more than you can handle. Give the rest to God. Let’s pray on this.
Lord Jesus, you died to set us free. Remind us that life with you is freedom and that we don’t have overwork ourselves to impress you. We ask this in your name. Amen.
That’s all I’ve got for you. Go in peace.