Rick Warren's Blog, page 628

God Uses Your Mistakes, Failures For Good

You can learn a lot from your experiences — good and bad. To apply them to your work, you have to go back over time and ask, “Where was I successful and where was I not? Where was I fulfilled and where was I not? What got me excited about work?”

Learn How to Love Your Co-workers

One of the most important keys to receiving God’s favor on your work is this: You must care about the people you work with. Even when they are irritable, even when they don’t like you, even when they make fun of you, even when they put you down for being a Christian, you must still be a friend to them.

Your Boss Is Not Really Your Boss

Your boss is not really your boss. Your boss is Jesus.

The Bible says, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24 NLT, second edition).

Be a Missionary in Your Workplace

Did you know that, no matter what you do for a living, you can use your work to bring glory to God? You can use your business and your workplace to further God’s Kingdom.

How do you do that? One way is to use your business contacts to spread the Gospel.

God Uses Your Work to Develop Your Character

In the book of Genesis, there’s the story of a man named Joseph. God gave Joseph a vision of becoming a great leader, but for 40 years he spent his life as a slave, and much of that time he actually spent working in prison. That was the testing ground of Joseph’s character, and when the day came and the time was just right, God pulled him out of that setting and placed him where he always intended Joseph to be. The whole time, God was growing Joseph’s character.

The Work That Makes You Happiest Is for God’s Kingdom

Meaning matters more than money. When you get to Heaven, God isn’t going to ask you, “How much money did you make?” He’s going to ask, “Did you make your life count? Did you express the talents that I gave you?”

The Power to Keep Going

The Bible tells us that God always finishes what he starts: “God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished” (Philippians 1:6a NLT). It doesn’t say, “God might finish it.” It doesn’t say, “God hopes to finish it.” It says God will finish it. What does that mean?

God Looks at You Through Eyes of Grace

The Bible says in John 1:17, “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (NCV). Why through Jesus Christ? Why is Jesus Christ the only way to Heaven? Why not Buddha? Why not somebody else?

Who Will Be in Heaven Because of You?

The Bible says in Acts 20:24, “The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me — to tell people the Good News about God’s grace” (NCV).

Notice it doesn’t say the most important thing in life is to get married, fund your retirement, travel a lot, become famous, or pay off the house. It says the most important thing in life is to fulfill your mission. If Jesus died on the cross for you so that you can fulfill your mission and you don’t do it, then that is a massive, eternal waste.

How Do You Get God’s Sustaining Grace?

What do you do when you can’t fix an unfixable problem? What do you do when you can’t solve an unsolvable riddle? What do you do when you can’t change an unchangeable circumstance?