Most cultures today praise a lifestyle that is driven by work and the pursuit of success, but does God really want us buried in long working hours? Jesus once referred to Himself as the Lord of the Sabbath and never as the Lord of overtime work, and that should tell us something.
Work is a wonderful blessing and undoubtedly a blessing that comes from God. When God set Adam in the garden of Eden, He gave him a task to work. God also calls each and every one of us to be part of His glorious work, and gives us skills, talents, professions and industries so that we can be a blessing to each other.
Sadly, in the fallen nature we have as sinful humans, we tend to twist something as beautiful and God-ordained as work just like how we have corrupted other God-given gifts. Work was meant to be our servant. We were not meant to become slaves to work.
Proverbs 23:4 says, "Do not toil to acquire wealth; be discerning enough to desist." And again there is nothing wrong with work. What we fail to see is what work may do to our hearts. When we work hard to strive so that we can be a blessing to others and glorify God, and then rest as needed, our work becomes worship to God. But when work becomes a coerced obligation, a means to gain more wealth or a chain that holds our time at the expense of relationships, devotion and our health, we become slaves to work.
I speak of course out of experience that I hope no one has to experience. At one point in my life, I sacrificed my relationships, my devotions and my health at the altar of success. By God's grace, He set me free from the chains of the addiction towards money, work and success. He gave me a new heart through Christ and caused me to work for Him instead of for money, success and myself.
Psalm 127:1 reminds us, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain."
We all want success, but success is not ours to define and to gain on our own. It is given by God. When we strive to work, work and work for ourselves and exclude God from the picture, we labour in vain. But when we work allowing God to work in and through us, He builds for us and watches over our work for us.
God doesn't want us to become slaves to work, but to allow him to build the house and watch over the city for us as we work not as a means to gain, but primarily as a means to give and allow God to add all things upon us.
