The bed is so warm and the room is so cold. Your eyes are heavy. You glance over at the alarm clock and feel the weight of a million problems and tasks waiting for you later in the day. You struggle out of bed, head blindly to the coffee pot, stumble into the shower, throw on your clothes, and head to work.
Some of us work all day just waiting for the shift to end so we can go home ... and start the whole process over again. Day after day after day.
Is this really the work life that God intended us to have? No one is exempt from a tough day at work, but is our time working supposed to be one of misery and longing for the end of the day? In the Book of Genesis, God laid a very different foundation. In the first two chapters, God provided powerful words for how we are to approach our work.
Work is a gift from God, not a curse.
"God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth. The LoRd God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there He placed the man He had formed. The LoRd God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The LoRd God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. And the LoRd God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die." (Genesis 1:28; 2:8-9,15-17, HCSB).
In Genesis 3:17-19, God placed a curse on our work as a result of Adam's disobedience. This curse affected our work, but work itself is not the curse. In fact, when we look at Genesis 1:28, we see that God ordained for Adam to be busy working. God gave Adam work before sin entered the picture.
God gave Adam three commands:
1. Reproduce: Adam and Eve were to have children who would also reproduce and begin the process of filling the earth.
2. Bring order: The picture here is one of subduing. This represents the responsibility for Adam and Eve to work faithfully to take advantage of the natural resources that God put around them.
3. Rule: Adam and Eve were to have dominion over all the fish, birds, and every living thing. God established an order right from the beginning.
Since work is a gift from God and not a curse, we can see that God's plan in Genesis 1:28 is for us to be faithful in doing our work. God could've told them to sit idly by while waiting for Him to take care of all of their needs. Instead, God called Adam to be proactive.
One of the greatest ways we see work as a gift from God is the way God uses our jobs to provide for our families and those who depend on us. Without work, how would we meet those needs? Even in our moments of frustration with work, we can thank God for the provision that He brings through our work.