Let’s begin by defining the word, work. According to Oxford dictionary, work is anactivity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result. It can also be defined as an activity that a person engages regularly to earn a livehood.
As children of God, one of our responsibilities is to work. The bible tells us in Genesis chapter 28, that after creation, God commanded that man must subdue the earth. The command to subdue the earth and work on it is a command God gives to every man whether Christian, Muslim and pagan. Given that command, it means that Work is extremely important both spiritually and temporal. It further says that everyone receives his reward according to his labour- (1 Corinthians, chapter 3: 8). In other words, the more man works, the more God rewards his efforts. Therefore, it means that when we work, we also fulfill the demands of our creator and the refusal to work is also disobedience to God (Matthew- 25, :14-30)
Every 1st of May, the world celebrates “Worker’s Day” this shows how important work is and also how important it is for man to work in obedience to God’s command so that man can earn a livelihood and be able to take care of their needs. Referring to the bible passage again and in agreement to God’s command, we learned that when God appointed Joseph as the foster father of Jesus, Joseph did not abandon his work. Joseph continued his work as a carpenter and it was revealed that people of his home town knew him as a carpenter, and a great one at that. This is may be one of the reasons why Pope Pius X11 established the feast of St Joseph the Worker in 1955. Pope Pius X11 also reiterated that there is dignity in labour and reminded us all that every work that we do is for God and therefore must be done well. So, let us be aware today that when we work, we fulfill a certain obligation to the creator of work and also fulfill our obligation as the children of God.
Jesus tells us in John 5, 17, that the Father is always at work. This infers that if God is always at work, we His children must also work so that we can sustain our children just as God sustains His children. Consequently, if we truly want to sustain our lives and make it in life, we have to work. We must find something to do and be committed to it and pray as well. No matter the job we are doing, we need to pray because work and prayer go hand- in – hand. We must always pray to God to bless the work of our hands irrespective of the volume of work we are doing, be it small or big, we need God’s blessings to prosper our work. More so, in everything that we do in life, we should do it with all our heart, we should do it for the glory of God and He will surely bless us. Apostle Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3, :10, “he who does not work let him not eat”. We just have to do something.
We know that things are very difficult but that does not mean that we should go to sleep. Let us continuously fight the challenges and be like the ant who must find a way out of a stumbling block. The truth is that we are all born with a blessing but often times, we refuse to put the blessing at work This is not the time for us to wait for manna to fall from heaven or wait eagerly for destiny helpers, this is the time for us to put our God given blessings at work and become destiny helpers. Remember, that when God created Adam and put him in the garden of Eden, He did not say because l have provided you with all your needs, go to sleep and do nothing, rather, God blessed him and commanded him to cultivate, work and till the garden (Genesis 2: 15). So no matter if you are born with a golden spoon or you are born poor, know it that Work is very important. Therefore, whatever you are doing, ask God to bless your efforts, remain strong and never give up.
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