My Type A personality is all about avoiding being “ineffective and unproductive”. God has promised us that “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness …” (2 Peter 1:3) and further that “if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive …” (1:8a) “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14) “ecause God has poured out his love into our hearts …” (cause) “hope does not disappoint us …” (effect).īecause of our hope in both God’s present and future Kingdom (the “now and not yet”), we have stamina to press on. Paul once again uses cause and effect language. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:3-5 encourages us, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance perseverance, character and character, hope. We say, “Life happens,” yet hope sustains us. We reverse those two at our own peril, forfeiting His enabling power, and often resulting in frustration and suboptimal results. Having received God’s grace (cause), we work or labor to serve Him and His Kingdom in ways He has equipped and empowered us (effect).
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. Paul clearly and skillfully addresses the relationship between God’s grace and our works in Ephesians 2:8-10.
Our work for the Lord is in response to His love, not an attempt to earn His love. My “Cause” had changed the effect was the welcome release of not being driven to please others. Most frequently others were satisfied, but I was no longer “held hostage” to their approval, and this brought tremendous freedom to my workplace walk. I began to see how my good work glorified God. While I continued to work hard, my motivation, my Audience changed. Paul wrote “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the LORD, not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23). Talk about disappointment and de-motivation!Īs the years passed, I began to learn a better approach. From a human perspective I found that sometimes this was successful, and sometimes my hard work was simply greeted by indifference and expectations for more. I worked to please and/or to gain their favor and approval. During my career, particularly in the early years, my motivation to work hard was to impress others, be they clients, coworkers or supervisors. This runs counter to what we often experience in the workplace.
“We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” “Faith, hope, and love” is not a catchy one-off in scripture it’s a foundational tenet.ĭuring my study recently, 1 Thessalonians 1:3 leapt off the page at me, arresting my attention. But the greatest of these is love.” (NIV) Other references to these virtues can be found elsewhere in Paul’s epistles, Peter’s writing, and in Hebrews. Many people the world over are familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. The holy triad of faith, hope, and love is found multiple times in the New Testament.
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