If you’re just doing your job just to get a paycheck rather
than it being your purpose indicates you’re stuck in your job. Many famous people started off this way. Vincent Van Gogh started off as a
schoolmaster, then an apprentice priest, then an art dealer, then an
artist. Harry Truman was a banker,
bookkeeper, failed business owner (hardware store), then president. Walt Disney was rejected by the army and a
newspaper, then fired by an ad agency for having a lack of creativity. Harrison Ford spent 15 years as a carpenter,
cabinetmaker and stagehand before being an actor. Polls say 60% of Americans feel stuck in
their career.
Ecclesiastes 2:24 says God designed us to work and to find
satisfaction in our work (even in the garden Adam was told to tend the
garden). Have you ever felt like all you
are doing in the garden of your life is pull weeds? We should still be able to find a way to find
fulfillment in our work because God always gives us the ability to fulfill His
promises. Quitting your job won’t
necessarily get you unstuck, and neither will your dream job.
Ways to get unstuck
in your job/career:
1) Choose to make God your boss. Your company is NOT your source. Colossians
3:23 says that in all we do we work as it is unto the Lord. You will need to change your mentality from
working for money to working for God.
When we change this, now God is obligated to reward us, rather than you
looking for your employer to reward or recognize you. We can depend on God to fulfill His promise,
but if we limit ourselves by our ability to satisfy them or their ability to
reward us, we miss out. If we’re working
for God, you should be a blessing to your company. You should be working to make them as
successful as possible. Instead of doing
the minimum we’re required to do, we should instead bring excellence to
everything we do despite whether it’s noticed and appreciated or not. God notices regardless.
2) Separate who you are from what you do. Sometimes in my life, what I was doing
directly reflected my purpose, and other times it didn’t. Either way, it’s important to God. If you define yourself based on what you do,
what happens if you lose your job? The
Bible says we’re to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Christ. This doesn’t necessarily mean suffering. The cross was Jesus’ purpose. We need to take up our cross, deny ourselves
and follow Him. How do you know your
purpose? It’s whatever is before you
right now. Do that. If you have other desires for the future,
don’t worry about that. Do what’s in
front of you now. When you move, you can
be steered. “Wait on the Lord and He
will renew your strength.” Wait doesn’t
mean to sit around (how would you need strength to do that?), but it means to
serve (wait like a waiter). Then as we
serve where we are, God can steer us toward our purpose.
3) Choose to be faithful in the small things. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 is a
good example of this. The manager gave
according to what he knew they could handle, and rewarded those who did
something with what he gave them. As
we are faithful with what we have now, then God makes us ruler over more.
4) Choose to
persevere even when you feel stuck.
Quitting is the easy choice as a way out in most cases. Choose to be happy where you are first. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, Paul accounts how he
learned to do this in his life and that it made him stronger. If we persevere through bad circumstances and
believe God, then we will be ready for what God has for us when we get there.
To listen to the entire sermon go to http://ahwatukeechurch.com/ and click on
online media. To learn more about Living
Word Ahwatukee, visit http://ahwatukeechurch.com/.
