The Work of God

More than one participant in Jobs Partnership’s LifeWorks program has said, “I never knew my work mattered to God.”

They’re not alone. It’s easy to look at work as a necessary evil, a means to an end, an obstacle between us and what we really want to do. But our good God wants much more for us than that, giving humans the gift of work at the beginning of time: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). As JP cofounder Bishop Sylvester Robinson tells participants during the LifeWorks session on God’s View of You and Work, “God gave Adam a job before He gave him a wife.”

Why? Because work is good. If they hadn’t sinned, Adam and Eve and their descendants would have been eternally creative, productive — and satisfied. They would have labored mentally and physically but without toil, frustration and wasted effort. Worth, worship and work would have been seamless. God designed people to work so they would glorify Him and benefit one another.

But Adam and Eve did sin. Work is hard. It wears us out. It’s frustrating and stressful. And it’s still good. Because God designed people to work so they would glorify Him and bless one another.

Whether you’re operating a forklift, running a business or making a child’s sandwich, your work makes a difference. You experience the satisfaction of the proverbial job well done, and the people affected by what you do experience satisfaction as well. Does this make God happy? You bet.

This is the worldview we share at Jobs Partnership. We want the people we serve to find, get and keep better jobs – and we want them to embrace their identity and purpose in God’s economy. And we tell them about the best work of all: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he sent” (John 6:29).

Written by: Dina Hernandez, JP Donor Services Manager