"Lord, I promise, tomorrow!" Tomorrow comes and you sheepishly whisper once again, "Lord, I promise, tomorrow!" Then after months of promising God "tomorrow," you resign yourself to the fact that you are just too busy, especially with your crazy work schedule, to spend time in prayer or in the Bible. "After all," you reason, "God gave me this job and He knows better than anyone the unreasonable demands and time constraints being placed on me. Right?"
Have you ever felt this way? Well, this was my life for many, many years. The alarm clock would go off and I would begin my marathon day, racing against time. Then one day I shared my frustrations with a close friend. I opened my heart about my life revolving around my work and blurted out, "I haven’t had a devotion in months!"
As I was speaking those words, the thought hit me: Work is my life. As a single woman striving for professional status, I had abandoned my first love, God, in pursuit of a fast-paced career in human resources. After listening to me, my dear friend Lina responded with something so simple yet profound that it changed my life. She said, "The only thing that keeps me sane is spending time in the Word of God. I am committed to devotional time every day!"
We talked about the importance of spending time in the Word of God and the blessings, refreshment and intimacy that came from this time. She encouraged me not to be so consumed with the days events that those things took higher priority than my relationship with God.
God commands, "You shall have no other gods before me" (Deuteronomy 5:7). He knows that when we place things before Him, like our career, our focus gets blurred, foundational truths get uprooted, faith turns to fear and a close relationship with Him is something we can only reminisce about, leaving a deep void in our heart. Pursuits outside of God are meaningless. Psalm 127:1: "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain."
Having a career is great but placing it before God leads to a lonely road, often requiring us to forsake family, friends and most importantly, our fellowship with God. The choice is so clear. We can either labor for the Lord and receive the blessings He has in store for us, or we can work our fingers to the bone, placing God on hold, striving aimlessly to be fulfilled by the false god called work.
God loves us so much that He beckons us to place Him first so we can experience a relationship with Him and reap the blessings and benefits of knowing Him in our day-to-day commitment. Only as we place God in His rightful place, above all else, we are able to overcome the devil’s schemes to keep us in workplace captivity.
Taken from Thank God It's Monday by Kim Hackney, © 2003 by Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group. Used by permission of publisher.
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