4 Lies You Should Never Believe About Your WorkLife

There are certain things we accept as true probably because we were told by people we respect or believe they should know better or we just come to conclusions that they are meant to be so based on other information at our disposal.

As a Christian employee, there are many things we have been taught and we have concluded that they are true whether they are or not in actual sense. They affect our we run our lives and how we behave in some instances.

Lies are from its father (John 8:44), the Devil and there are 4 of such lies he has been peddling that  I would like to address as it relates to our relationship with work.

1. Jobs are not spiritual. A better way to put it would be to say that our jobs are carnal and if we go by the line in the scripture that we should not be carnally minded, we would assume that being righteous is not to like your job or be committed to it. We are made to believe that at best, our jobs give us the opportunity to make money that we will give as offering, tithe or some special seeds. As a result of this, many Christian Employees are not as committed in their jobs because they believe it doesn’t carry much spiritual  weight.

While shortlisting for assessment centre for a graduate recruitment programme, I spoke with a young man. When I asked him if he had any question, he asked if he would be required to work on Saturdays. I asked him why he asked the question and he told me because he has to be in church every Saturday and he doesn’t want his work to disturb him.

He was invited for the assessment centre which was to start by 8am on the chosen day. The Centre Manager called all the candidates in the morning just to check that they were on the way. When she called the guy at past 7am, he was still at home. She reminded him of the time and that lateness is not tolerated. He shrugged off the counsel and said he would be there on time.

He arrived about 15 minutes past 8am and when he was told that he was late, he said “is it not just 15 minutes”.

It really baffled me why he would think he could come late to ‘work’ but would not want to take up a job that would prevent him from being in church on Saturdays. This is one of the ways this lie plays out. We are made to believe our work is not part of the spiritual equation.

2. Our vocations have no spiritual authority. A second lie is that our vocations (A regular occupation, especially one for which a person is particularly suited or qualified) have no spiritual authority. If that is true, why would Jesus call a fisherman and tell him that He would make him fisher of men? Or why would God let Moses get some training in leading flock before being called to lead His people out of Egypt?

Many of us have been called into the vocations we practice today to be the light of the world but typical of the devil, he would make us believe that the vocation does not have anything to do with spiritual matters. Think about this for example, how can we influence the mass media and the content that are sent out if we do not have righteous men in authority? A cable TV censored the use of “God” and “Jesus” on all their channels, and subscribers started complaining. Well, the powers that be used their authority the same way a Christian in the realm of affair could have used the spiritual authority he/she has to promote the Kingdom.

3. Secular employment is to be separated from the church’s ministry activities. Many of us would be guilty of this especially when we think the workplace is not where to talk about Jesus Christ.

4. Ministry is what takes place within the four walls of a church building. This lie is more dangerous than the others because many of our pastors reinforce it unknowingly. When we hear statements like “your work is not as important as what you do in church” in a bid for them to get us participate more in activities that go on within the four walls of the church building, then guilt set in when we are not able to meet up for programmes. Of course, this is not an excuse for running away from church activities all in the name of “I am busy at work” it is the reality that ministry can also happen in the workplace.

We need to be conscious of these lies and not suffer fool gladly because it is a game of the devil to deceive us from being active in the most viable mission field – the marketplace.

We understand from the scripture that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost.

“for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

‭‭Luke‬ ‭19:10‬ ‭AMP‬‬

This refers to all that was lost in the garden of Eden and work is included in the package. If work and the marketplace is not that important to God as the devil would make us believe, Jesus wouldn’t have bothered to save it.

Let us be wise.

God bless you.

Akindele Afolabi

Christian Employee Series