Good Work-er

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Ephesians 2:10 (NIV)

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” – Aristotle

Our actions are a function of who we are. People around you will get to know who you are and what are your characteristics through your actions. Whatever is within you has to be revealed through your actions.

The arena where we have a large audience to witness our actions is at our workplace, where we spend more than one-third of our lives working 8 to 10 hours a day.

The quality of work that we do daily at workplace is a very critical indicator of who we are and totally determines how your colleagues categorize you.

In Ephesians 2:10 Paul says “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (emphasis mine)

As Christians whatever work we do it has to be good, as per the above verse.

God’s self-evaluation system

In Genesis, we read that God always looked at his work each day and declared that it was good. (Genesis 1:4) God’s work was always excellent and good. He has left us an example of how we should work and do self evaluation of our work to see if it’s good or not.

Each day as we complete our work, wouldn’t it be good practise to look back at all the work we have done for that day and declare that it was ‘good’? This self evaluation will help us keep track of the quality of our work that we do. Definitely, this will help us to improve and grow our excellence every day. And ultimately bring glory to God’s name.

Light of the world

“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

We are called to be the light of the world. There are many ways we can light up this world. I believe that one of the ways is through our skills and excellence at the workplace. Our skills and how we deploy them at the workplace will bring glory to God.

As mentioned in Matthew 5: 15, we shouldn’t hide the light under a bushel. In this case, we should display our God-given skills at the workplace. Excellent skills will propel one’s career forward and will enable one to get better positions or promotions. In this way we can be ‘set on the hill’ where we cannot be hidden. Colleagues and our bosses cannot ignore us since we will become shining lights that will brighten the team.

Moreover, we should be in the habit of acquiring new skills that’s needed for our work or industry. Always remember that your career is a moving target. It’s imperative that we keep updating and learning new skills to stay relevant in the workplace. And ultimately use our skills to bring glory to God.

I believe that the above principles of self-evaluation of our daily work and deploying our skills will help each of us be a good worker at our workplace. If you have any other ideas of how we can be witnesses for Christ at our workplace, please do share them in the comments.

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Sure Word of Promise

God promised Canaan to the Israelites and wanted them have a glimpse of it. He orders Moses to choose twelve leaders, one from each tribe, to spy Canaan (Numbers 13 & 14).  These twelve leaders spy the land for forty days. They find that Canaan was indeed flowing with milk and honey. They get to walk in it and feel it. Their hearts were filled with joy that they were going to inherit a place so fertile and beautiful like Canaan.

However, there was one problem. The people who lived there were giants. These spies looked like grasshoppers before them. Now their hearts were troubled and they were totally discouraged. They thought they would never be able drive away these giants from the land. They spread this bad report among the people. Now everyone started complaining and whining.

All, except Caleb and Joshua, were scared.

Caleb and Joshua had a different spirit and a different perspective. They believed that God was with them and will help them defeat the giants. They urged the people not be afraid. They told them to have faith in God and His power. But the people tried to stone both of them.

Now God was angry. The faithlessness, the whining and the grumbling was a great insult to God’s promise and His power. He was now contemplating about sending a plague among the people. If not for Moses’ pleading before God, they would all have been destroyed that day. But God said in His anger that none would enter the promised land, except Caleb and Joshua.

Forty years later. Israelites inherit Canaan. The people who had doubted and grumbled were all dead. It was Joshua and Caleb who led the people into the promised land.

Lessons to be learnt:

1)  When God makes a promise it is sure and will definitely get fulfilled.
Heaven and earth may change, but God and His word will never change.

2)  When you doubt God’s promises it’s an insult to God.

3)  Both faith and fear are contagious.
It’s yours to choose which one to spread.

4)  Present circumstances and the promise will always contradict each other.
It’s yours to choose on which one to set your eyes on.

5)  A leader should always have a strong faith and clear vision about the promise.
This applies to your family, business, work, etc….

6)  There’s always a waiting period before the promise gets fulfilled.
It builds up your faith and prepares you to receive the promise.

7)  Walk by faith and not by sight.

“Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”   – St. Augustine

The following is one of my favorite songs:

He did not bring us out this far to take us back again.
He brought us out to take us into the promised land.

Though there be giants in the land, we will not be afraid.
He brought us out to take us into the promised land.

Hold

The song ‘Hold’ by Superchick never fails to encourage me. Just thought I’ll share it here.

Tell me that it’s gonna be okay
Tell me that you’ll help me find my way
Tell me you can see the light of dawn is breaking
Tell me that it’s gonna be all right
Tell me that you’ll help me fight this fight
Tell me that you won’t leave me alone in this

‘Cause I need
I need a hand to hold
To hold me from the edge
The edge I’m sliding over slowly
‘Cause I need
I need your hand to hold
To hold me from the edge
The edge I’m sliding past
Hold on to me

Tell me I can make it through this day
I don’t even have the words to pray
You have been the only one who never left me
Help me find the way through all my fears
Help me see the light through all my tears
Help me see that I am not alone in this

‘Cause I need
I need a hand to hold
To hold me from the edge
The edge I’m sliding over slowly
‘Cause I need
I need your hand to hold
To hold me from the edge
The edge I’m sliding past
Hold on to me

The Expert Weaver

A weaver is a craftsman who weaves and designs cloths. The weaver sometimes tends to make a mistake while weaving or designing. But if the weaver is an expert weaver he would turn that mistake into another beautiful design. In other words, he will use that mistake to create another beautiful design.

Even our life is like a piece of cloth that is being weaved each day. We as human beings tend to commit mistakes or sins that kinda spoils the cloth – our life. This makes us feel bad and very often gets us into depressions. At times we are clueless about what to do with all the mess that we had become.

But, if we give our lives to God who is an Expert Weaver and honestly tell Him about the mess we are into and request Him to take over our lives and do the designing…. then He will convert all our mistakes into a beautiful design that we would’ve never imagined.  The mess we are into might be because of our past or our failures or addictions or it could be anything. It doesn’t matter. All we have to do is just allow Him to do the weaving and designing.

One day when we look back ….. each of our lives will be an unique masterpiece designed by God for His glory.  We just need to allow the Expert Weaver to take over.

– Martin

“But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him” – Jeremiah 18: 4

“Turn me around pick me up
Undo what I’ve become
Bring me back to the place
Of forgiveness and grace
I need You, need Your help
I can’t do this myself
You’re the only one who can undo
What I’ve become” –  ‘Undo’ by Rush of Fools

Choices

Everything that we experience in our life is dependent on the choices that we make everyday. The consequences that follow after we make a choice decides whether it’s a good choice or a bad one. But, is it possible to make the right choice every time? Or can we make the right choice when we are aware of the consequences for each of the choice? Eve also faced a similar situation when she was about to eat of the tree of the knowledge of both good and evil.

God took a huge risk by creating man with a free will. And man made a choice to move away from God. That’s why the first step(and the hardest step) to become a good christian is to surrender one’s will. God has placed before us both good and evil and it’s our responsiblity to use our will to choose the right path.

Isaiah 5.1-4 speaks of a situation where all the necessary things for a vineyard to yield good grapes is provided. But the vineyard yielded wild grapes. Choosing to disobey God can make us unfit for God’s purposes. Jesus, when He was in the garden of Gethsemane, prayed three times pleading with the Father:”My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me”. I think Jesus very well knew the consequences of being crucified and not being crucified. But He choose to obey the Father and said:”Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

It’s the nature of man to make a choice that is against the will of God. But we still have the ability to use our will to choose what we want to do.

My prayer is that the Lord may enlighten our minds to understand the will of God and give us the guts to choose to do it.