Daily Digest #342

Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. —2 Corinthians 11:14

We may not realize this, but many of Satan's deception lurks in places where money and power are involved. When I started working and earning my way through a totally independent life, it was the most wonderful feeling. I could buy anything I wanted, and could go anywhere any time. I felt that I deserved every bit of luxury for my hard work. But I learned how one could be deceived of finding love and happiness in the wrong places -- usually those that money can buy. Our work becomes a goldmine for sufficing our material needs, and most of the time, a place to find self-worth. We work hard, we earn more. We get promoted, we earn much more. But if we were not too careful, we might be blinded by this abundance and end up confusing necessity with luxury, compromising our passions with our quest for worldly things, and risking our relationships (with God and others) that used to be at the top of our priorities. Truly, money is NOT the root of all evil, but the LOVE of money.

What started as a pursuit with noble intention -- earning to support the family, support one's education, or follow one's dream -- could lead to darkness for someone who does not have sound principles regarding good and evil. And God has set the standard based entirely on love. We ought to educate ourselves with God's standards, and not someone else's (like those self-help books that misconstrue God's Words), in order to prepare ourselves for the world ahead of us. Reading God's Words regularly is like getting a spiritual check-up; an assessment that figures our distance away from, or closer to God.

Let us pray. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the wisdom and guidance. Thank You for the gentle nudges everyday to stir us back to Your path. Please forgive us for being stubborn sometimes, for refusing to see the light and for choosing to turn away from You. We lift up all our concerns and priorities to You. May we find purpose in everything we do, and praise You for giving us direction. May we build a closer relationship with You, through Your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

God is Interested in Your Work

“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, He had His eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose He is working out in everything and everyone” (Ephesians 1:11-12 MSG).

Many Christians don’t make the connection between Sunday and Monday. They compartmentalize their life. They think, “Well, I’ve got a spiritual life and I’ve got a secular life. My spiritual life is when I read the Bible, when I pray, when I go to church, when I do good things for others. That’s my spiritual life.” And that’s over in one compartment.

So then, they think, over in another compartment: “This is my secular life. That’s my work, my job, my career, my business decisions, my finances, my pension plan; all these things are my secular life.”

God says, “No, that’s wrong. All of life is spiritual.” The word secular isn’t in the Bible. It all matters to God; everything in your life is important to God. God is as interested in your work as He is in your prayers. In fact, I would suggest that He might be more interested in your job because you spend more time working than you do praying.

The fact is, your relationship to Christ is like marriage. Marriage is a full-time relationship, and so is your relationship with Christ. What do you think would happen if I came up to my wife and said, “Honey, I’m going to act married only when I’m at home”?

The fact is, all of life is important to God, and you can’t separate your Christianity from your work, just as you can’t separate your Christianity from your life.