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On The Clock
About six months or so ago I wrote an article entitled “The unemployed Christian”. The article was based around 1 Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” From this verse we learn that we should be abounding in the work of the Lord daily. When we open the bible we can see that there are many jobs currently available in our local congregation: Matt: 8:19 Teachers and Preachers, Heb. 10:24-25 Encourager/Edifiers, 2 Tim 4:2 Reprover/Exhorters, plus many, many more. The point at the end of the article was this… there is plenty of work to go around, if you become an unemployed Christian in the Lord’s church it’s because you’re not looking for work.
I now want to take the next step in the this thought… we all recognize that there is work to be done, how to go from unemployed to a fulltime employee of the Lord?
First of all we each need to do a little soul searching… how much time do we actually spend working for the Lord? Yes, this is a question only you can answer for yourself. Let’s be honest, if the Lord had a time clock that we punched in and out while we were doing the Lord’s work, how many hours would we accrue in a day, week, month or even a year? I’m not equating hours spent doing the Lord’s work to righteousness but God does expect his people to be active daily or “on the clock”.
To be the kind of people that God wants us to be it must be a lifestyle that we live. These must be good habits and practices that we do daily… Praying for others, putting others before ourselves, studying His word, teaching by both word and example, knowing your brothers and sisters in our local congregation and looking to serve each other (just to name a few).
How do we go from being unemployed Christian or a “part-time worker” too a fulltime “On the Clock” Christian? It’s all about building new habits in our lives. If you wanted to lose weight, learn a new language, or get better at anything you need to spend time and effort on that endeavor. Its same with building good working habits in the Lord… it takes time and effort.
Let’s say for example you have searched the word and you recognize the need to pray for others daily (2Thes.5:17 Pray without ceasing), how do you make this happen. When you want to create a new habit or change one you need daily reminders (top of the mind awareness techniques). Place post-it notes in areas that will remind you to pray for others throughout the day: on the bathroom mirror, on the dash board in your car, on your day planner, on your computer at home or at work, etc… Make a list of those you know who need prayers (the Informer can assist you): Those who are sick or have chronic illnesses, the spiritually weak, new Christians, our Elders, those whom we support around the world, our young people and children, our parents in raising godly children… those are just a few examples. As you see these reminders take a moment and pray, before long you will be praying throughout the day for others and within a short time a new habit will form in your daily routine (James 5:16 the affective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much).
Maybe you want to develop a new skill set but don’t know how to start or maybe you are nervous and intimidated by trying new things. Not a problem, we have many examples in scripture of men and women mentoring and training others in the work of the Lord. Paul mentored Timothy and we can read about this relationship in both 1 & 2 Timothy. Timothy was a young man and Paul encourages Timothy to preach and stand for the truth. Also, Paul tells Timothy that even though you are young do not let others look down on your youth. Paul took special interest in Timothy and helped Timothy to grow both spiritually and in confidence.
In the Lords church today we have many men and women ready to assist you in developing new spiritual skill sets: Teaching classes, one on one bible studies, greeting visitors, encouraging others, developing your own prayer life, song leading, leading public prayer, becoming a better leader in your home, learning Christian leadership skills, etc… All it takes is for you to ask “can you help me to do what you do?”
Mentoring has always been an important part of training and developing new or young Christians to become the future teachers, preachers and leaders of the Lords church. It’s imperative that the seasoned and more experienced Christian look to teach and mentor others in what they know.
Here is my challenge to you: find an area of spiritual work you want to learn or how to do better and ask someone who is good at to teach you: if you want to learn how to teach then ask one of our skilled and seasoned teachers to mentor you. If you want to be a better spiritual leader in your home then ask one of our many seasoned Christians to assist you in our goal. If you’re not sure who to ask, talk to one of our Elders and I’m sure they can point you in the right direction. Whatever it is you want to do…. Just ask!
It is important as Christians to continue to grow and develop our spiritual skills. There is no middle ground in our spiritual growth, you are either growing or shrinking spiritually.
If we work on growing our spiritual skills daily we will see that the amount of time we spend doing the Lords work or “on the clock” will grow exponentially.1Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
Craig Hecht
