Is Work a Gift?

Our Heavenly Father is a wonderful gift giver.  In the first few chapters of the Bible in Genesis we see three main gifts to us.

1. He gives us this incredible earth to live our life, and to enjoy. From it, we receive countless blessings and things that sustain life.  We also get to know Him and glorify Him through this gift. We become stronger living here.
2. He gives us relationships and family, and for many of us a wonderful spouse to go through life with and enjoy. From those relationships we receive blessings, and we get to know Him and glorify Him through them as well. We become stronger dealing with people too.
3. He gives us work. Yes, He had Adam work, and Adam had so much work it became clear to him (not to God, it was His plan all along), that he needed a helper to get the work done (Eve came and helped get the work done).
   The fall in Genesis 3 made work harder, but the both of them and their offspring still had to work by God’s plan.

God gave us the gift of work for many reasons.  Here’s a few:

-Because God does (He worked for 6 days creating things, and rested on the 7^th) and we are created in His image, and we are to imitate Him like a mirror image. (Ephesians 5:1)

-We are to be fruitful and multiply. (Genesis 1:28) we are to be creative and improve our surroundings, for the betterment of ourselves and other people God loves.

-We are to form relationships with other people.  Partly to spread the Gospel, partly to help others, partly to be helped by others. It gives a venue to be salt and light. (Matthew 5:13-16)

-It teaches us to rely on God and need His help.

-It builds our relationship with Him.

-Dozens of scripture passages become real to us through our jobs.

-It gives us a place to use the gifts, abilities, and talents God gives us. (Matthew 25:14-30)

-It gives us opportunities to glorify God. (1 Corinthians 10:31)

-It provides monetary income necessary in our society to meet our needs and the needs of our families.

-It provides the monetary income from which to tithe and support ministries.

-So you can have something to give those in need. (Ephesians 4:28)

-So you can sleep well. (Ecclesiastes 5:12)

Genesis 1:28 we are told to be fruitful and multiply, you cannot do that without working.  We tend to think that command from God means to have babies…but it means so much more!  Being fruitful was mentioned by Jesus in John 15:5 to be spiritually productive and growing, and in Colossians 1:10 we are told by Paul to be fruitful in every good work.

Multiply means to grow up, to increase, to produce, to make something bigger or better.  To make lawn mowers, or to build houses, or design software, or make a caramel latte’.

So get to work with a great and joyous attitude! Be productive, it’s by God’s design, and God’s command.  Doing so glorifies Him!