My Family

The Lord has taught me a lesson here and there. But, again He is faithful to me and has answered my prayer.

I asked Him one night, “What is the lesson that You are trying to teach me, but I haven’t yet learned it?” I was struggling in my mind thinking, how come I am never content with my job and always looking for another place to work. How come whenever there is a little pressure knocking at my door, I am already packing my bag ready to leave the premise?

“This has to be stopped,” I said to myself.

In His awesome way, God embraced me, and taught me the following lesson, which I hope can be a blessing in your life.

We spend about half of our lives at work, or if you are a student at school, or if you are stay-at-home parents at home. Whether it is an office, school, or a home environment, the point is that we are spending majority of our time in that place.

We understand how our body is the temple of the living God, hence wherever we go, the Spirit of God goes with us. “For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."” (2 Corinthians 6:16)

We are also called Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), hence whatever we do or say, represents Christ’s nature.

Paul also mentioned about the need of obedience to the people whom God has put as our supervisor, teacher, or parents in his letter to the Ephesians church, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.” (Ephesians 6:5-6) They might call it slaves during Paul’s times, but it deals with similar relationship between subordinates and superiors.

To draw upon my own experience, which I am sure is similar to what others go through, finding a better paying job, a better house, a better education, are probably the top three priorities in one’s life when we are talking about financial matter. And we are pleased with ourselves when we have achieved something tangible connected with money, whether they are in a form of a house, a car, or a diploma.

And we all know how Jesus, Himself has taught us that we can’t serve two masters. “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Luke 16:13).

But, He also reassured us when He said how we are more important than birds or lilies that spin in the field, and how He knows what we need and would always provide for us. And that our life is more important than food, and our body is more important than clothes. And how we shouldn’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. (Matthew 6:25-34)

I believe it’s ok to plan ahead, and it is actually very important. But it is just as important as planning that we seek what God wants us to do before we jump into any conclusion. “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33)

The Lord gave me an understanding also that another common theme that we have at work, school, or home, is relationship.

Simply put, we can say that our co-workers are our family. Our teachers or the custodians in school are our family. And at home, our parents and siblings are family.

We can extend this relationship idea to the strangers that we meet on the street, at a store, bank, library, and the list goes on.

But, when we talk about the three families mentioned above, we are talking about those people whom we spend a lot of time with together.

There might or should be a priority set on this, where family or work or school should come before or after the other. And the Lord will guide you and teach you this as well.

A family cares for one another, it helps each other, it builds one another, it does not envy each other, it is patient in dealing with one another, it thinks no evil of each other, it does not angry easily, it always trusts one another. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

In summary, when we are thinking of changing our jobs, or making a decision on our next step, think about all of the above, first ask the Lord if it is in His will that we move on, second, think about the impact that you will have on the people around you, last, but not least, be ready to hear no as an answer, because the Lord is constantly building your character to be humble and more like Him, and staying or being content is what He may desire for you at that moment.

God bless.