Ploductivity: A Practical Theology of Work & Wealth

by Douglas Wilson

Pray that God establish the work of your hands, and not just the work of your heart. This is not a facile “health and wealth” approach because God is not to be treated as some kind of a vending machine. God’s blessing includes both temporal victories and temporal defeats, and evangelical faith knows how to handle all of it. Some subdued kingdoms and received their dead back to life again, while others were flogged and imprisoned (Heb. 11:33–39). Some lived in palaces and some in caves, but faithfulness knows how to live in either place. At the same time, although the faith can thrive in times of persecution, we are not to pray for persecution. We are instructed to pray for quiet and peaceable lives (1 Tim. 2:2). A Christian should be able to be content whether he is out in the cold, or inside by the fire (Phil. 4:12). But even so, everything else being equal, the apostle Paul knew enough to come in out of the rain. We know which way to go, which way to pray, which direction to set our sights as we work. So with hunger for God’s blessing as the foundation of our settled demeanor and attitude, we may now turn to some more practical considerations. We will still be doing theology, but we are going to be doing it now in the office, the study, the workshop, and the kitchen.