Have you ever said to yourself, or to others, "I hate my life"? I have--multiple times. What I meant was that I hate the circumstances of my life--circumstances that I caused--circumstances that I cannot run away from, that I cannot change, that I have to live with for the rest of my life. That is the life I hate. I sabotaged my own future and have been living out the consequences since 2012. At times my depression has been staggering, stifling, debilitating. I've envisioned taking my life several times (though I have never actually tried to do so and do not foresee me doing so). Even recently I said to some co-workers that I hate my life and I hate myself. Again, though, hating my life means that I hate my job; I hate my $71,000.00 student loan that is crippling me financially from month to month; I hate the 9 credit cards that I have often lived off of because I didn't earn enough money per month to live on or to pay all my bills that month. When I say that I hate myself I merely mean that I hate myself for sabotaging my future. My life consists of waking up, going to work, coming home and going to bed in order to do it all again.
UNHAPPY IN THE WILL OF GOD
I am at times appalled that I am not farther along in my sanctification. Thirty years in Christ and, the longer I walk in Him, the more holy I see Him and the more sinful I see myself. From nasty attitudes to spiteful thoughts against others, or being so frustrated and flustered and exasperated at work that I speak before I think, words I would never say in front of my brothers and sisters in Christ, yet knowing that God knows every word on my tongue before I utter them (Ps. 139:4). How am I not more conformed to His likeness by now (Rom. 8:29)? I know full well that I am where I am in my life right now by God's own mercy, grace, and sovereignty (Ps. 139:16); and, yet, I still buck against His will. "Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control" (Ps. 32:9 NLT). I have even said to myself, and even to others, "I know I am where I need to be by God's grace, and by God's exhaustive will, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."
I call this the Jonah complex. He was stubbornly resolved not to do what God told him to do (Jonah 1:3). But, no matter where Jonah fled, God was going to have His way (Jonah 1:4-2:7). "When I had lost all hope," writes Jonah, "I turned my thoughts once more to the LORD" (Jonah 2:7). Jonah ended up doing God's will but he was not happy about it; and I have been equally the complainer that Jonah was: "Death is certainly better than this!" (Jonah 4:8). I've said the same words. Really, Jonah? Really, William? Death is better than your current circumstances? Oh, the drama! In psychology this is called catastrophizing--making a grand and epic mountain out of a tiny little molehill. God, have mercy.
THE MERCIES OF GOD
When Scripture insists that God is longsuffering (Num. 14:8; 2 Pet. 3:9), the meaning is that He is far more patient with our ignorance and our stubbornness than any human ever would or could be, and then even more so! Because of the longsuffering mercies of God we are not destroyed (Lam. 3:22 NKJV). There are days I wonder how on earth God could still love and care for me--through all of my whining, complaining, ungratefulness, prayerlessness, stubbornness, worrying, despising my job with every fiber of my being but also knowing that He has supplied me with this job as a means to live (and even intending, I think, to use the stress and toxicity of the place to sanctify me).
Have you ever read this command: "Do all things without grumbling or disputing" (Phil. 2:14)? I can't help but notice the word "all." Daily, I probably remind God of the way His Jewish people acted from four thousand years ago: "The whole congregation of the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Now the Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger'" (Ex. 16:2-3 MEV). God despises complaining (1 Cor. 10:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). How do I not exasperate Him every single day?
BECAUSE OF JESUS
There is one and only one answer to that question and the answer is Jesus. Because of the Mercy (Eph. 2:4) and the Blessing (Eph. 1:3) and the Good Pleasure / Kind Intention (Eph. 1:5) and Grace of God (Eph. 2:5, 8), and the Gift of Faith in Christ (Eph. 2:8; 2 Pet. 1:1), God the Father sees His children in, in union with, God the Son (Eph. 1:7), Jesus Christ (1 John 5:20), through the effectual work of God the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13, 14; Titus 3:4, 5) and considers each adopted (Eph. 1:11) child of His to be as righteous / holy / blameless / sinless as Jesus Christ Himself:
CHRIST MY LIFE
As a believer, a disciple of Jesus, each one of us is called by God to keep our spiritual focus on "things above, not on earthly things. For you died [your old way of life is gone, dead, not controlling you any longer (cf. Rom. 6:14; see Col. 3:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)], and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:2-3 NIV). This reminds us of John's words: "But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All who have this hope in Him purify themselves [daily], just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2-3 NIV). Jesus is our life in at least two ways: 1) He is to be the focus and center of all that we do in this mortal life; and 2) He is our eternal life. Both truths should be practical in the here and now for our spiritual lives.
That Jesus is our eternal life is obvious from several passages scattered throughout the Bible. Jesus prays to the Father: "Now this is eternal life: that they [all who follow Jesus] know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent" (John 17:3 NIV). The word know in New Testament Greek refers to knowing someone personally, intimately, like a well-known family member. We do not merely know about God--we know Him personally, in the Word (study of Scripture and in Word-centered sermons), in prayer, and in worship. But Jesus is our eternal life in a more profound sense: He is the one and only Way toward eternal life, the one and only objective Truth regarding eternal life, and the one and only Life or Life-Giver: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). When Isaiah is given revelation of the Messiah, he refers to Him, among other names, as "Everlasting [or Eternal] Father" (Isa. 9:6 NIV), a phrase better translated as "Father [or Bestower] of Eternity" (Darby, YLT); cf. "the Father of the world to come" (DRA, Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition, WYC), "Father who lives forever" (EEB, ERV, EXB, ICB, NCV, NIRV, NLV), "Possessor of Eternity" (OJB). The Orthodox Jewish Bible is closest to the right expression.
The Hebrew אָב (ab or abba), referring to father, also refers to one who is principal, forefather, chief or ruler, genitor or one who begets--one who begets / produces / originates and bestows offspring. From BibleHub we read: "The Hebrew noun אָב occurs about 1,200 times across every genre of the Old Testament. Its primary sense is 'father,' but the breadth of usage stretches from literal parenthood to metaphor, covenant titles, vocational founders, and poetic idioms. The word can denote (1) a male parent, (2) an ancestor of any distance, (3) the head or representative of a household or clan, (4) a benefactor or protector, and (5) the source or originator of a practice or object." This final sense is the clearest expression denoting Jesus as the Originator and, therefore, the One who bestows Eternal Life to those who trust in Him.
What we must avoid at all cost is leading anyone to think that Jesus is God the Father. He is not. Jesus is God the Son and cannot be in any sense referred to as God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. Three Persons share one nature of only one God. We know that Jesus is the Possessor and Bestower of eternal life from revelation granted to His apostles: "In Him," Jesus, "was life and that life was the light of all mankind" (John 1:4 NIV); Jesus came to His own Jewish people but were not largely received by them (John 1:11); but "to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12). Jesus is not only the One who bestows eternal life and salvation but is also our Judge: "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:22, 23).
JESUS AT THE CENTER
Jesus is our eternal life but He is also our daily life. Dr. Richard D. Phillips comments: "Most significant to Paul's argument in Colossians is the believer's participation in Christ's ascension: 'seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God' (Col. 3:1). Christians have not physically died and are not personally located in Heaven [2 Cor. 5:8]. But, Paul says, we are joined to Christ in faith and, since He is enthroned at God's right hand, believers already have a place established above. Similarly, Ephesians 2:6 tells us that God has 'raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus [cf. Eph. 1:20].'"1 When we are exhausted, stressed beyond all reasonable measure, that would be an excellent time to pause, even if for one brief moment, and remember that Christ is on His throne next to His Father, and we are right there with Him, and soon we truly will be in reality. If God is not biting His divine fingernails then we will get through every single one of our excruciating difficulties, seasons of grief or of depression, and our anxiety and worries.
This does not mean that we walk around with a fake or creepy smile on our faces, as though we belong to some cult, as though nothing at all is wrong or could be wrong in our lives. Those days are, thankfully, gone. We are not obligated to pretend that everything is okay--in our lives, in our culture, in our communities or places of employment. But we also don't have to walk around as though the sky is falling and the world is coming to an end in the very next moment. We, as born-again believers in Jesus and children of God, are called, according to F.F. Bruce, as quoted by Dr. Phillips, to possess what interests Jesus in such a way that our minds, our attitudes, our ambitions and our entire outlook on life, no matter how bad things may appear and no matter how we may feel inside, should be characterized by our living bond with the ascended and enthroned Christ.2 That is, at times, easier said than done. I know. I really, really know. I wear my heart on my sleeve.
Lately I have been praying two requests repeatedly--and I do mean repeatedly: 1) Lord, do in me what I cannot do for myself; and 2) Lord, make me like what I do not like (and that is referring specifically to not only my job but also the workplace environment itself). I am trying to realize, in the very moment of stress and anxiety, that this can be used to sanctify me: to rid me of outbursts of anger, to be calm and patient when the context is nothing but pure chaos, and to remember that the circumstance is only temporary. I'm not there yet but I have the goal before me. Dr. Phillips is right to say that Paul can "demand a radically new way of life" because we have a Life-Source living within us (cf. John 14:16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 13): "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). When I neglect or forget to call upon the Lord during times of intense anxiety, and utter chaos, what emerges is not holiness, or calmness, but outbursts of frustration that my life should be like this right now. But, when I reflect on it, I see glimpses of what God is doing within me. The mighty Oak Tree, as they say, does not grow tall and big and strong by being pacified and babied but by strain, minor drought and stress, with times of refreshing.
Life in Christ is not for the fainthearted. Christianity is not a Hallmark movie. Mothers lose their sons. Husbands lose their wives. Children lose their innocence. Christians lose their battles. Some days we strive against sin and other days we run head-first toward it. Sometimes we pay our bills faithfully and other times spend frivolously and begin to sink into debt. We hate our job, only to then lose our job, and our new job is even worse than our old one--our old one that we thought we hated so much but then realize that we had it fairly nice. Dreams and hopes get dashed to pieces. Futures are ruined. Regret and consequences are debilitating. But every now and then, when we take our eyes off of our circumstances, we see glimpses of Heaven, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father; and we remember that this is not our Home; we remember that we are still citizens of a different Country, a better Country, one that is heavenly (Heb. 11:16; Phil. 3:20). Maranatha!
CONCLUSION
If you are like me, or you recognize even a small amount of my own experience in yourself, then I hope you and I will be reminded by the Lord that He takes great delight in us taking great delight in Him. We are taught that we live and move and have our being in our triune Creator (Acts 17:28 ESV). So, then, when we are at work, laboring away at a job we do not like, may He remind us that He is watching over us, to protect us, to provide for us, and that even the job that we do not like is a means by which He provides for us, and He wants to use the harshness of life to soften us to His sovereign will and His loving care. May He grant us sensitivity of heart to recognize His presence in our lives, knowing from His Word that Jesus is our life, and that we are called to live our lives in Christ by grace through faith in Him (2 Cor. 5:7).
What matters in life, what is the very meaning of life, is not what I do--a job, a career, a ministry. What matters is my relationship with Jesus in prayer, in the Word of God, in loving obedience, in worship and service, and in loving and serving others. For too long have I centered the very meaning of life itself in a job, a career, a ministry. What a pity. Christ is my life. I'm glad I discovered this--even if it took so long.
UNHAPPY IN THE WILL OF GOD
I am at times appalled that I am not farther along in my sanctification. Thirty years in Christ and, the longer I walk in Him, the more holy I see Him and the more sinful I see myself. From nasty attitudes to spiteful thoughts against others, or being so frustrated and flustered and exasperated at work that I speak before I think, words I would never say in front of my brothers and sisters in Christ, yet knowing that God knows every word on my tongue before I utter them (Ps. 139:4). How am I not more conformed to His likeness by now (Rom. 8:29)? I know full well that I am where I am in my life right now by God's own mercy, grace, and sovereignty (Ps. 139:16); and, yet, I still buck against His will. "Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control" (Ps. 32:9 NLT). I have even said to myself, and even to others, "I know I am where I need to be by God's grace, and by God's exhaustive will, but that doesn't mean I have to like it."
I call this the Jonah complex. He was stubbornly resolved not to do what God told him to do (Jonah 1:3). But, no matter where Jonah fled, God was going to have His way (Jonah 1:4-2:7). "When I had lost all hope," writes Jonah, "I turned my thoughts once more to the LORD" (Jonah 2:7). Jonah ended up doing God's will but he was not happy about it; and I have been equally the complainer that Jonah was: "Death is certainly better than this!" (Jonah 4:8). I've said the same words. Really, Jonah? Really, William? Death is better than your current circumstances? Oh, the drama! In psychology this is called catastrophizing--making a grand and epic mountain out of a tiny little molehill. God, have mercy.
THE MERCIES OF GOD
When Scripture insists that God is longsuffering (Num. 14:8; 2 Pet. 3:9), the meaning is that He is far more patient with our ignorance and our stubbornness than any human ever would or could be, and then even more so! Because of the longsuffering mercies of God we are not destroyed (Lam. 3:22 NKJV). There are days I wonder how on earth God could still love and care for me--through all of my whining, complaining, ungratefulness, prayerlessness, stubbornness, worrying, despising my job with every fiber of my being but also knowing that He has supplied me with this job as a means to live (and even intending, I think, to use the stress and toxicity of the place to sanctify me).
Have you ever read this command: "Do all things without grumbling or disputing" (Phil. 2:14)? I can't help but notice the word "all." Daily, I probably remind God of the way His Jewish people acted from four thousand years ago: "The whole congregation of the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. Now the Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us forth into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger'" (Ex. 16:2-3 MEV). God despises complaining (1 Cor. 10:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10). How do I not exasperate Him every single day?
BECAUSE OF JESUS
There is one and only one answer to that question and the answer is Jesus. Because of the Mercy (Eph. 2:4) and the Blessing (Eph. 1:3) and the Good Pleasure / Kind Intention (Eph. 1:5) and Grace of God (Eph. 2:5, 8), and the Gift of Faith in Christ (Eph. 2:8; 2 Pet. 1:1), God the Father sees His children in, in union with, God the Son (Eph. 1:7), Jesus Christ (1 John 5:20), through the effectual work of God the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13, 14; Titus 3:4, 5) and considers each adopted (Eph. 1:11) child of His to be as righteous / holy / blameless / sinless as Jesus Christ Himself:
But now, apart from [failed attempts at keeping] the Law, the righteousness of God has been made known [been made evident or obvious], to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe [the righteousness of God is accounted to those who believe / trust / exercise faith in Jesus]. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely [considered as though they never sinned] by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement [lit., Mercy Seat, Ex. 25:10-22], through the shedding of His blood--to be received by faith [2 Pet. 1:1--we receive the benefits of Christ's sacrifice by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ: Eph. 2:5, 8, 9, 10]. He did this to demonstrate His righteousness [that God is right / righteous / just], because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished [Acts 17:30]--He did it to demonstrate His righteousness [rightness / justness / perfection] at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus (Rom. 3:21-26 NIV).So, God the Father considers each one of His children to be sinless by His own grace through a gifted faith in His Son Jesus Christ by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we know as much from this passage of Paul as well: "It is because of Him," that is, God the Father, "that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, [Jesus has become for us] our righteousness, [our] holiness and [our] redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV). The believer is redeemed, the believer is holy, the believer is righteous by virtue of being in the Holy and Righteous Redeemer. God looks at us through the blood-stained glass of Christ Jesus. God our Father "made Him who had no sin" (John 8:46), Jesus Christ, "to be sin for us," or a sin-offering for us, "so that in Him," Jesus, "we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21 NIV).
CHRIST MY LIFE
As a believer, a disciple of Jesus, each one of us is called by God to keep our spiritual focus on "things above, not on earthly things. For you died [your old way of life is gone, dead, not controlling you any longer (cf. Rom. 6:14; see Col. 3:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)], and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:2-3 NIV). This reminds us of John's words: "But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All who have this hope in Him purify themselves [daily], just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2-3 NIV). Jesus is our life in at least two ways: 1) He is to be the focus and center of all that we do in this mortal life; and 2) He is our eternal life. Both truths should be practical in the here and now for our spiritual lives.
That Jesus is our eternal life is obvious from several passages scattered throughout the Bible. Jesus prays to the Father: "Now this is eternal life: that they [all who follow Jesus] know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent" (John 17:3 NIV). The word know in New Testament Greek refers to knowing someone personally, intimately, like a well-known family member. We do not merely know about God--we know Him personally, in the Word (study of Scripture and in Word-centered sermons), in prayer, and in worship. But Jesus is our eternal life in a more profound sense: He is the one and only Way toward eternal life, the one and only objective Truth regarding eternal life, and the one and only Life or Life-Giver: "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6). When Isaiah is given revelation of the Messiah, he refers to Him, among other names, as "Everlasting [or Eternal] Father" (Isa. 9:6 NIV), a phrase better translated as "Father [or Bestower] of Eternity" (Darby, YLT); cf. "the Father of the world to come" (DRA, Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition, WYC), "Father who lives forever" (EEB, ERV, EXB, ICB, NCV, NIRV, NLV), "Possessor of Eternity" (OJB). The Orthodox Jewish Bible is closest to the right expression.
The Hebrew אָב (ab or abba), referring to father, also refers to one who is principal, forefather, chief or ruler, genitor or one who begets--one who begets / produces / originates and bestows offspring. From BibleHub we read: "The Hebrew noun אָב occurs about 1,200 times across every genre of the Old Testament. Its primary sense is 'father,' but the breadth of usage stretches from literal parenthood to metaphor, covenant titles, vocational founders, and poetic idioms. The word can denote (1) a male parent, (2) an ancestor of any distance, (3) the head or representative of a household or clan, (4) a benefactor or protector, and (5) the source or originator of a practice or object." This final sense is the clearest expression denoting Jesus as the Originator and, therefore, the One who bestows Eternal Life to those who trust in Him.
What we must avoid at all cost is leading anyone to think that Jesus is God the Father. He is not. Jesus is God the Son and cannot be in any sense referred to as God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. Three Persons share one nature of only one God. We know that Jesus is the Possessor and Bestower of eternal life from revelation granted to His apostles: "In Him," Jesus, "was life and that life was the light of all mankind" (John 1:4 NIV); Jesus came to His own Jewish people but were not largely received by them (John 1:11); but "to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12). Jesus is not only the One who bestows eternal life and salvation but is also our Judge: "Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:22, 23).
JESUS AT THE CENTER
Jesus is our eternal life but He is also our daily life. Dr. Richard D. Phillips comments: "Most significant to Paul's argument in Colossians is the believer's participation in Christ's ascension: 'seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God' (Col. 3:1). Christians have not physically died and are not personally located in Heaven [2 Cor. 5:8]. But, Paul says, we are joined to Christ in faith and, since He is enthroned at God's right hand, believers already have a place established above. Similarly, Ephesians 2:6 tells us that God has 'raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus [cf. Eph. 1:20].'"1 When we are exhausted, stressed beyond all reasonable measure, that would be an excellent time to pause, even if for one brief moment, and remember that Christ is on His throne next to His Father, and we are right there with Him, and soon we truly will be in reality. If God is not biting His divine fingernails then we will get through every single one of our excruciating difficulties, seasons of grief or of depression, and our anxiety and worries.
This does not mean that we walk around with a fake or creepy smile on our faces, as though we belong to some cult, as though nothing at all is wrong or could be wrong in our lives. Those days are, thankfully, gone. We are not obligated to pretend that everything is okay--in our lives, in our culture, in our communities or places of employment. But we also don't have to walk around as though the sky is falling and the world is coming to an end in the very next moment. We, as born-again believers in Jesus and children of God, are called, according to F.F. Bruce, as quoted by Dr. Phillips, to possess what interests Jesus in such a way that our minds, our attitudes, our ambitions and our entire outlook on life, no matter how bad things may appear and no matter how we may feel inside, should be characterized by our living bond with the ascended and enthroned Christ.2 That is, at times, easier said than done. I know. I really, really know. I wear my heart on my sleeve.
Lately I have been praying two requests repeatedly--and I do mean repeatedly: 1) Lord, do in me what I cannot do for myself; and 2) Lord, make me like what I do not like (and that is referring specifically to not only my job but also the workplace environment itself). I am trying to realize, in the very moment of stress and anxiety, that this can be used to sanctify me: to rid me of outbursts of anger, to be calm and patient when the context is nothing but pure chaos, and to remember that the circumstance is only temporary. I'm not there yet but I have the goal before me. Dr. Phillips is right to say that Paul can "demand a radically new way of life" because we have a Life-Source living within us (cf. John 14:16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 26; 15:26; 16:7, 13): "For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). When I neglect or forget to call upon the Lord during times of intense anxiety, and utter chaos, what emerges is not holiness, or calmness, but outbursts of frustration that my life should be like this right now. But, when I reflect on it, I see glimpses of what God is doing within me. The mighty Oak Tree, as they say, does not grow tall and big and strong by being pacified and babied but by strain, minor drought and stress, with times of refreshing.
Life in Christ is not for the fainthearted. Christianity is not a Hallmark movie. Mothers lose their sons. Husbands lose their wives. Children lose their innocence. Christians lose their battles. Some days we strive against sin and other days we run head-first toward it. Sometimes we pay our bills faithfully and other times spend frivolously and begin to sink into debt. We hate our job, only to then lose our job, and our new job is even worse than our old one--our old one that we thought we hated so much but then realize that we had it fairly nice. Dreams and hopes get dashed to pieces. Futures are ruined. Regret and consequences are debilitating. But every now and then, when we take our eyes off of our circumstances, we see glimpses of Heaven, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of the Father; and we remember that this is not our Home; we remember that we are still citizens of a different Country, a better Country, one that is heavenly (Heb. 11:16; Phil. 3:20). Maranatha!
CONCLUSION
If you are like me, or you recognize even a small amount of my own experience in yourself, then I hope you and I will be reminded by the Lord that He takes great delight in us taking great delight in Him. We are taught that we live and move and have our being in our triune Creator (Acts 17:28 ESV). So, then, when we are at work, laboring away at a job we do not like, may He remind us that He is watching over us, to protect us, to provide for us, and that even the job that we do not like is a means by which He provides for us, and He wants to use the harshness of life to soften us to His sovereign will and His loving care. May He grant us sensitivity of heart to recognize His presence in our lives, knowing from His Word that Jesus is our life, and that we are called to live our lives in Christ by grace through faith in Him (2 Cor. 5:7).
What matters in life, what is the very meaning of life, is not what I do--a job, a career, a ministry. What matters is my relationship with Jesus in prayer, in the Word of God, in loving obedience, in worship and service, and in loving and serving others. For too long have I centered the very meaning of life itself in a job, a career, a ministry. What a pity. Christ is my life. I'm glad I discovered this--even if it took so long.
__________
1 Richard D. Phillips, Colossians and Philemon: Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2024), 216.
2 Ibid., 217.
1 Richard D. Phillips, Colossians and Philemon: Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2024), 216.
2 Ibid., 217.
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