Ask a Pastor: Can I Worship God Through My Work?

Question

Can I Worship God Through My Work?

Answer

Introduction

It’s Sunday evening, and you’re setting your alarm for tomorrow. You know how it goes. Tomorrow morning you’ll fully switch gears. You’ll live the rest of your week hyper-focused on work and “normal life”. As you roll over to go to sleep, the question floats through your mind: could there be a way to make all of my life one of worship to God? You don’t want to be just a “Sunday Christian.” But how? Join me for a few minutes as I seek to give a biblical answer to your question.

Let’s Begin with Some Definitions

First, what is work? According to the Bible, work is our labour through which, with God’s blessing, we take wise dominion over the world for our own good but especially for God’s glory. What about worship? Worship, in its broadest sense, is when you and I turn away from sin, prostrate ourselves before God, and offer Him our whole lives in praise and service to Him – because He is worthy to receive all the glory.

Next, Let’s Remember These Two Overarching Principles

First, the creation account in Genesis along with the Ten Commandments make it very clear that God has set aside one day in seven for His special worship and given us the six other days to accomplish all our work. God is pleased, then, when we worship Him whole-heartedly on the Sabbath and then on Monday turn and work diligently the other six days of the week. This rhythm was His design, and we should rejoice in its goodness.

But then second, although God has given one day as a special day of worship, He actually commands that all of life be worship to Him. Paul says it this way in Romans 12:1: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice [a word for the burnt offering], holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service [a word used for part of temple worship].” The point is this: because our Lord Jesus Christ offered Himself as a dying sacrifice on the cross of Calvary, we may have peace with God through Him (Romans 5:1). And after that, we are to offer all that we are in thanksgiving as a living sacrifice to God.

Finally, Let’s Consider Two Big Picture Answers from the Bible

All that I have said this far tells us that the question we asked at the beginning is the right question: how can I make all of my life – including my work week – one of worship to God? Let me give you two answers: one focused on work, the other on worship.

Answer 1: Completely Reorient How You Think About Work

Consider four mistakes we may be making right now in how we think about work.

First, we often think that work is the curse. As a teenager, I grew up working in my dad’s construction company. It was common to hear on the shop floor on Friday morning – TGIF! Thank God – It’s Friday! Come 4:30pm, I get to stop work. That was a pretty unhealthy view of work. Genesis 1-3 makes it clear: God worked first; work is good; and we were created to work. Our sin brought a curse upon our experience of work but work itself is not the curse.

This takes us to a second matter. We need to view our work with a wider-angle lens. Our work is more than bringing home a paycheck or doing the dishes. The Bible teaches us that our work is having dominion over the earth. Genesis 1:26-28 in connection with 3:17-19. That means being fruitful, and multiplying, and filling the earth. That means subduing the natural world, taming its wildness, making it fruitful and useful for God’s kingdom. A farmer does this with land. A carpenter with wood. A teacher with knowledge. A parent with children. A Christian may do this in all of these areas – but especially by weeding out sin, preaching the gospel, and seeking to build God’s kingdom. Your work is far bigger than you. It is bringing the world into submission to God. 

Which takes us to a third matter: the most important part of our daily work is not physical; it’s spiritual. When I hit my 20’s, I joined a framing crew that built custom houses. What was the most important thing that I brought to work every morning? Was it my work pouch? It was not. It was the verses I read from my Bible that morning; the line stuck in my head from the worship song I had sung on my way to work; the faith re-invigorated in my heart via the promises I had been believing as I talked to God in prayer. I brought those things to work, and they were what helped me in the daily fight against sin. I remember my co-workers staring at immodestly dressed ladies walking by and laughing at me for not joining in. In the ensuing struggle I realized that my most important work wasn’t with a hammer and saw. It was with my mind and heart. Philippians 2:12-13: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Ephesians 2:10: “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”

And that connects directly with a last matter. We often think that work is mostly about us. When we are young, many of us were given a piggy bank. We put the money in that piggy bank to save up for a future house, car, college, and so on. And that is of course good. But here is the problem: this can inadvertently teach us that work is mainly about me. The check I take home at the end of the week. My future. My goals. And so on. But the Bible tells us that work is actually ultimately about God. We take dominion over the earth for God. The great goal of our work can be found in the Lord’s Prayer: “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

Now these four things can really discourage us, because we all come short. But there is a great encouragement in the gospel: Jesus, as God’s own Son, is that great worker we all need (John 5:17). He sanctified all legitimate earthly jobs as a man, as Hugh Latimer said, when he worked as a teenager. Far more than that, He did a saving work on the cross to give forgiveness and rest to all who trust in Him (1 John 1:7-10, Hebrews 4:9). He also showed His people how we may show our thankfulness: building God’s kingdom by living and preaching the gospel to all around us. Praise God for His work through Jesus Christ!

Answer 2: Bring Worship into All of Your Life

All this means that when we give up on trying to earn our salvation, and instead – as needy sinners – rest in Jesus’ finished work, we can now live all of life in thankful worship to Him. Here are seven pieces of biblical advice by which you can do that.

1. Worship God in your work…by working from a place of rest in Jesus, and His finished work. Your identity, value, and worth are in Him. He cares for His people. He will care for you. John 6:28–29. Hebrews 11:6. Luke 12:32.

   
   

2. Worship God in your work…by ceasing from your sin. Sin drains us of the ability to worship God and makes our worship displeasing to him. Psalm 51. 1 Peter 2:24. Romans 6:11–13.

   
   

3. Worship God in your work…by worshipping God before your workday starts and then as you’re able throughout (on drives, coffee breaks, during kid’s naps, etc.). Psalm 5:3. Psalm 55:17. Daniel 6:10.

   
   

4. Worship God in your work…by praying without ceasing as you work and thanking God often as you do. Thanksgiving fuels worship! 1 Thessalonians 5:17. Philippians 4:6. Colossians 4:2.

5. Worship God in your work…by the way in which you work. Diligently, cheerfully, with integrity, respectfully, not giving in to dirty language, coarse jokes, or other things that would steal glory from God. Ephesians 6:7. Colossians 3:23. 1 Corinthians 10:31.

   
   

6. Worship God in your work….by sharing the Gospel with others. That might be your kids, or your co-workers, or someone else. But how often even a small mention of the good news can begin to wake up worship in our hearts, and hopefully in the hearts of others also. Matthew 5:16. Colossians 4:5-6. 1 Peter 3:15.

   
   

7. Worship God in your work…by looking with longing and hope towards your final rest in Heaven. There are few things that can wake up worship more than regular sights of heaven, and of our dear Jesus at its center. Hebrews 12:1–2. Hebrews 4:9. Revelation 5:11-14.

   
   

And of course, there are many more things we could say. But the great point of it all is this: God gave us the Sabbath so we could worship Him for one whole day in a special way. But He didn’t just dedicate the Sabbath to His worship. He dedicated you and me, body and soul, seven days a week, 24-7, to His worship. Whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, we are to do it all as living sacrifices to the glory of God. Next time you set your alarm on Sunday evening, think about that. You might be changing gears on Monday morning, but you can still head the same direction. Your life can still be all about God. May God give us the grace to do just that.