Who do you work for?

Who do you work for? Think about that before you answer. When asked the question, many would give the name of the company or industry in which they work. But going even deeper, what is the paycheck you are looking to cash?  Is it for the needs of the family, the joy of getting that ‘thing’ you always wanted. Is it for that vacation you have planned, or that swimming pool you want to put in.  All come with a price, and depending on how much you get, will result in which of those extra things you will be able to purchase or achieve. All of my life I have worked hard, not only to accomplish my dreams of what I wanted to do, but also to achieve freedom from debt. I could feel the pull of that which I was indebted to and the bondage to continue trying to make enough to “pay the bills.” Those thoughts came to me this morning when I was reading in Romans. Think about this! “Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey – either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to, and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification – and the end is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:16-23   So I have had to answer the question that approached my heart. Why do I keep working on things?  I work because work makes me physically content, but all the while I work, I am involved in spiritual thoughts. He is teaching my heart to become a slave to Him, through faith in Jesus. He is teaching me that although I have physical work, it is not the means to an end, and I see the futility of this physical labor. Yet I will always be “busy” physically, because I don’t want to physically stall, and being active physically, actually makes my thoughts more productive in learning how to be a slave to God, to place everything that I have in Him, and to know the grace that He has poured out for me, which is the true satisfaction of my heart. I work with my mind focused on the Lord, and I can’t be idle, because I believe that my flesh will want to tend toward mischief. So I toil with perhaps things that mean nothing to no one but me, but they are lessons in faithfulness toward the One who is preparing me for eternity, and who is moving me toward sanctification. Pastor Andy