God Where You Work

It’s a weekday and for many, that means it’s off to work. Does that make you feel excited, bummed, energized, intentional? It may be a combination of all these feelings. As you prepare for work, do you lay things out the night before: the clothes you’ll wear, the things you need to have with you, your lunch? Sometimes habits and routines can help us better navigate our lives and have a more positive outlook. We have examples of people in the Bible who planned:
Nehemiah made a plan to rebuild Jerusalem after it had been destroyed by invaders. (Nehemiah 2)

Martha was busy getting ready to host Jesus and his followers. (Luke 10:38-42)
Paul planned out his missionary journeys for maximum impact. (Acts 16)
Planning can be helpful. Things don’t always work out according to our plan, but things tend to work better than if we have no plan. Paul even tells us his plan was interrupted by a vision in the night of someone beckoning him to change his course to come share the Gospel with another people group.

Planning can be helpful and so can routines. That may sound boring, but you probably follow several routines without even being aware of it. It’s kind of an autopilot to make life go better. Sometimes routines can be negative (we say we’re in a rut) but we can leverage them to be helpful.

As you make your plans and work your routines to your advantage as you prepare for work each day, realize that God is going with you. He doesn’t leave us on our own but navigates right along with us, at work, school, relaxing, everywhere. Sometimes He may make changes in our plans (like He did for Paul) and sometimes He may invite us to take a break from our busy activities (like He did for Martha). 

Through it all we can count on Him to be with us. We can step forward in confidence, counting on His guidance. Be encouraged and strengthened by this Old Testament blessing:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.  Numbers 6:24-26