Wednesday, November 1, 2023
Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24
All For Him
It is easy to get caught up in striving for people’s approval. Even without realizing it, we seek approval of others when we post the most beautiful pictures on social media and check over and over again to see how many likes we have. Most people want to do a good job and be told that they are doing a good job. Sometimes we only want to be acknowledged for doing certain things. Other jobs we don’t consider important. We prefer to do the things that we think make us look good, and we do those jobs well.
But in Colossians 3, Paul tells us to always do everything from the heart as it we were doing it for Jesus – as if He were standing right beside us watching how we work. Jesus is our standard and He set the standard for all of life for us, and it should be our heart’s desire to please Him above all others.
In this passage Paul was talking to Christian bondservants or slaves, but it should certainly be applied to all of our lives. Sunday, Pastor Jim said that as Christians, everything changes in light of our relationship with Jesus. As we are transformed, our perspective changes and in and through Christ we relate to the world. That means how we live our life in every way, including how we work and who we are trying to please.
In every aspect of life, we are to choose wisely and make decisions that would please the Lord in all we do or say. Work today is a little different than it was in Paul’s day, but the principal remains the same, and it extends to other areas of our lives beyond work. The way we handle our relationships, as we talked about earlier this week, should be a reflection of our relationship with Him. The way we treat those we encounter everyday who are not family, the way we treat our friends and co-workers, and even the way we treat those who are offensive or hurtful to us is part of this too. Jesus gave us examples in His Word for everything.
You may have a terrible boss or rude co-workers, but Jesus still calls us all to the same high calling. We are called to serve people—no matter who they are—as though we are serving the Lord. We can pray for and receive help from the Holy Spirit with our thoughts, words, and actions. He is our guide who is with us through everything and helps us when we call on Him.
When we live our lives this way others will notice. There will be a difference about you and your life that stands out, and they will want to know what it is and how they can have it too. This will be a reflection of our own testimony, as well as representing our church and the whole body of Christ as a whole.
Jesus loved people and served them too. He served the not so nice people who persecuted Him. He showed us how to love and serve people as well. We live out the Gospel with our lives. The earthly rewards for our work are only temporary and usually do not fulfill the longing we have deep inside. When we do everything as it is for the Lord, when we seek to honor and glorify Him above all, our reward is eternal. When we live our lives for His glory and to honor Him, we receive a reward of inheritance from the Lord.
