Jesus said, "I have... [completed] the work you gave me to do..." (cf. John 17:4)--what a sigh of relief that must've been!
Nehemiah said, "For the people had a mind to work." (cf. Neh. 4:6) What is meant by that?
I accepted a job as a file clerk for the VA. Filing used to be my bugaboo! My pet peeve around the office was that I had to do the filing, because I was the low man on the totem pole, as they say!
How God has changed me! Of course, there is extrinsic motivation like more pay and intrinsic motivations like feeling called to do a work for God for His glory. Like Nehemiah felt "inspired" to say, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down." (When on the wall of Jerusalem which was built in only 52 days.) Zechariah was also an expert on intrinsic motivation, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord Almighty."
You are only inspired as lofty as your insight, e.g., there was the story of the three stone cutters who were working and someone asked them what they were doing. The first one said that he was cutting stones, the second said he was earning 20 pounds an hour, and the third said he was building a cathedral! Obviously the last one had his eyes on the Lord.
Paul urges us to do our work likewise "heartily as unto the Lord." There is no work that is beneath us (remember Christ took up the "order of the towel"), because God is no respecter of persons; and there is no hierarchy in Christianity or class system--we are all brethren in Christ (God has leveled the playing field saying we are all "one in Christ"). Soli Deo Gloria!
Nehemiah said, "For the people had a mind to work." (cf. Neh. 4:6) What is meant by that?
I accepted a job as a file clerk for the VA. Filing used to be my bugaboo! My pet peeve around the office was that I had to do the filing, because I was the low man on the totem pole, as they say!
How God has changed me! Of course, there is extrinsic motivation like more pay and intrinsic motivations like feeling called to do a work for God for His glory. Like Nehemiah felt "inspired" to say, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down." (When on the wall of Jerusalem which was built in only 52 days.) Zechariah was also an expert on intrinsic motivation, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord Almighty."
You are only inspired as lofty as your insight, e.g., there was the story of the three stone cutters who were working and someone asked them what they were doing. The first one said that he was cutting stones, the second said he was earning 20 pounds an hour, and the third said he was building a cathedral! Obviously the last one had his eyes on the Lord.
Paul urges us to do our work likewise "heartily as unto the Lord." There is no work that is beneath us (remember Christ took up the "order of the towel"), because God is no respecter of persons; and there is no hierarchy in Christianity or class system--we are all brethren in Christ (God has leveled the playing field saying we are all "one in Christ"). Soli Deo Gloria!
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