Israel had been in captivity in Egypt for 400 years, when God spoke to Moses about leading his children out of Egypt and into the promised land. It was about a twelve day journey to the promised land if they would trust God to do everything through them. He was so excited about blessing his children, Israel! The challenge came when as they spied out the land that God had given them, fear began to set in, and they allowed the fear to guide their decisions. That ended up costing them forty years of wandering around in the desert! They thought their freedom actually depended upon themselves, instead of the hands of Almighty God. Certainly, they needed to obey God, but it was God himself who would bring them deliverance.
The Promised Land of our work is very similar to what the Israelites encountered so many years ago. We look at our needs, or the needs of our company, and begin to have some anxiety about the future. Anxiety that is left unchecked, turns into full blown fear and fear then tries to drive all of our actions. We began to believe we have to do it all ourselves by working harder or longer. Before you know it, you’re in bondage to your work, instead of your work being the wonderful expression of worship he intended it to be.
We begin to chase the dollar as our primary focus, instead of the by-product, because we’ve allowed our lack of faith to be motivated by fear. Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life ? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? (Luke 12:22-26 NIV)
Anything that takes us much beyond our normal workday, except an occasional deadline, or special project, is saying we have to do this ourselves and remove it from the hands of God. We must come out of the Babylonian or world system, and trust the Lord for all of our provision. Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn’t it? But it isn’t!! God is faithful all the time! Trust and glorify God in your work, and fear not!!