God and the Marketplace

There is a universe of difference between hearing a sermon about God and hearing the God of the sermon speak to our hearts. One tickles the mind and trips the ego; the other touches the heart and transforms the life

Recognise you need to hear what God has to say- you’re not going to figure it out – life is too complex
Stop complaining, be thankful, remember God’s goodness then listen carefully

Knowing about grace and experiencing it are two different things. Grace, when truly experienced, transforms you. We experience grace when we reliase how badly we’ve messed up, how ugly we are, how we do not deserve anything but JUDGEMENT from God and yet God chooses to bless us greatly!

Grace is getting what we do not deserve and mercy is not getting what we deserve.

Today the rewards of a job have become the all-consuming focus of a person’s life – we fight, fume and frustrate ourselves over it. Our identity, self-worth and self-esteem become tied up in our work. Our work becomes our security, the measure of success, our significance, status and substance. This was NEVER the purpose of work intended by God.

God is the ultimate provider – the be all and end all. He ordained work only that it might glorify Him. You should aspire for work excellence only because excellent work glorifies God. Yet today, work excellence is pursued and exalted above the God it is meant to glorify. The means has become an end.

This is the Satan’s greatest deception to make you think that you are holding the net and catching fish, that you are in caught. The reality is after awhile, you can no longer let go of the net. The ‘success’ of your day has solely determined by the amount of your catch. All you begin to think about is how to catch more and more fish. At this point, you’re caught in your own net. The fish you caught really baits you. In the name of efficiency, we have begun to compromise everything – our distinction (love, compassion, mercy, grace, justice), our relationships (God, family, friends), our being (our principles, purpose, personhood). Yes, we have compromised EVERYTHING!

God not only cared about the workplace, but He wanted to be right in the centre of it. Jesus can and wants to use our workplaces not only to share His word, but also to bless you and those who work with you – if only we would stop striving and trying so hard on our own. He wants us to stop getting all consumed with the fish, and stop relying on ourselves or our nets but rather, be guided by His word, His principles, His wisdom, His direction, His purposes, in all that we do.

Blessed is the man who ceases to strive and know that God is God.

-Taken from the article titled ‘God and the Marketplace’ by J.Kirk Tan, CEFC