“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Colossians 3:23-24
The business sphere touches every single person reading this today, whether you work to provide goods or services or you are a consumer of those goods or services. If you are a provider, then you strive to serve your customers and clients with excellence. If you are a consumer, then you look for excellence in the goods and services that you purchase and receive. Most of us are both.
Regardless of the sector you work in, ‘whatever you do’… make, work, or labor at … whatever that is, the scripture tells us that you are supposed to ‘make, work or labor at it’ with ‘all of your heart’, which is most often translated, your life, soul, and breath – in other words, our entire being with nothing withheld. If we bring that into today’s language, we should be working all out and be all in! Not for those that we serve, but for Jesus that we serve. Any excellence and greatness that we strive for in our service should be motivated by whom we get to serve, the Lord Jesus Himself!
Three key things to note when putting this into practice:
- When we work as ‘working for the Lord’, the human bosses that we serve will notice the difference.
- When we serve as ‘working for the Lord’, our clients and customers know that they have been treated in an extraordinary way and will be touched.
- When we treat those serving us with the grace and dignity due a workman ‘working for the Lord’, treating them as we would like to be treated, they will notice the difference and will feel appreciated.
At our recent Summit in St. Louis, one the supervisors of the workers who served us during our conference, was overheard by one of our staff telling the wait staff that he had worked with other Christian groups through the years, but that we were completely different, and that he had never worked with nicer people than those at this conference. That was a tremendous compliment for our NDP coordinators and leadership, but also a tremendous testimony that our volunteer leaders and staff served them and treated them with such grace and dignity that they noticed the difference and felt appreciated.
Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for allowing us the privilege to ‘do, work, and labor at’ what we do as ‘doing, working and laboring’ for YOU. Thank you for providing the ultimate example of a servant – and leader. Holy Spirit, transform us as we serve the Lord and serve others just like we are serving Jesus himself. And Lord Jesus, thank you for the reward that you have prepared for us who follow and serve you. Father, we ask all of this in Jesus name, Amen.
Your fellow workman,
Dion Elmore
Vice President
National Day of Prayer Task Force
