Is work a blessing? In Biblical times people did not connect their work to their self-fulfillment. In fact, work was more about survival, given that hard work and honest labor produced food, income, and a sense of accomplishment. The idea behind work in biblical times was to be productive and, in doing so, you were actually doing what God commanded. You were a contributor not only to your family’s well-being but also to the nation’s well-being. The same holds true today. Work, when viewed in the proper biblical perspective, produces sustenance, a roof over one’s head, gives voice to worth and value, and supports generous giving and much, much more.

For career professionals today, viewing your work as something more than a paycheck can have profound implications on the motivation, passion, ethics, energy, and devotion put into your work. Stop right now and ask yourself the following questions:

Is my work a paycheck, or do I view it as part of God’s blessing in my life? Is my work something I have to do, or something I have the privilege of doing? Does my work provide a sense of accomplishment, or is it mundane with no sense of purpose? The answer to these questions can reveal your motivation regarding your work—whether you approach your work with enthusiasm and passion or as an obligation. It can also reveal how you feel about God. Do you approach your work with integrity? Do you recognize the blessing of your work as a gift from the Lord? Finally, it can also reveal how you physically do your work: Do you put energy into your work? Are you devoted to doing your work well? While in a Roman prison, Paul stated, “Rejoice and again I say rejoice.”

God values work, and He has blessed us with it. I invite you to think of work as a blessing. God ordained work in the Garden of Eden, and we see it all throughout the Scriptures. Many of Jesus’ parables were describing works such as planting, sowing, working in vineyards, tending sheep, etc. Jesus and the Apostles all worked. The image we have of God, in the beginning, is that He worked. If He did, as His children, we should also see work as a blessing.

Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy. Exodus 20:8‭-‬11 BSB https://bible.com/bible/3034/exo.20.8-11.BSB

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Philippians 3:1 BSB https://bible.com/bible/3034/php.3.1.BSB

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you yourselves not my workmanship in the Lord? Even if I am not an apostle to others, surely I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. This is my defense to those who scrutinize me: Have we no right to food and to drink? Have we no right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? Or are Barnabas and I the only apostles who must work for a living? Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Who tends a flock and does not drink of its milk? Do I say this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the Law say the same thing? For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Isn’t He actually speaking on our behalf? Indeed, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they should also expect to share in the harvest. 1 Corinthians 9:1‭-‬15 BSB