On this episode:

This episode discusses the importance of taking time to think and highlights 2 Tim. 2:7.

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Opening

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the importance of taking time to think and how God can use that in your life.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Many people get nervous as soon as they hear the idea of sitting alone with their thoughts and just thinking and being in silence. But I want to encourage you that it is worth your time to learn how to do that.

Paul’s Encouragement to Think

Whether you’re sitting alone with your thoughts in silence or whether you’re doing it with worship music on, however you’re doing it, taking time to think is important and I really want to draw your attention to what Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:7. He says, “think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”

Well, this is highlighting the fact that we need to actually take time and think about what God has written down in His word. Now this has definitely been my experience where I just sit there and mull over something, a truth of God’s word, maybe a promise that I’ve heard from Him, or something about my life.

And all the sudden I just get it. Something shows up in my mind and my spirit and I just get it. And God just downloads it or clicks things together. He connects it to other scriptures, He connected to other things going on in life. He may bring something else to mind.

It’s all this inner working of God just speaking to us through our thinking. And we need to learn to do that. And if you’re, if you’re scared of the silence, do it with worship music on or do it with something that doesn’t distract you, but can let your mind flow freely.

And we wanna keep it flowing toward the things you know, like in Colossians 2:3, it says, set your minds on things above. And think about Philippians 4:8, about whatever’s honorable, whatever’s just what is pure, lovely, commendable, those sorts of things. Think about those things.

You Already Do This

Now I believe that if you consider this, you will realize that you already know how to do this and you’re already very good at it. In fact, our thoughts kindle and flame our affections. When you think about things that you want to think about, if you have an activity that you really enjoy and you like to think about that. Or if you just met someone that you like thinking about and it brings you more affection for them as you think about them or as you think about that activity that you want to do, it grows your excitement and your affection toward that.

So this principle is just as important and no different when it comes to the things of the Lord and His Word and our affections for Him. So if we want to grow in our affections and understanding of something, we need to think about it.

Paul is talking to Timothy in that verse and saying to think about what He’s saying. God will give understanding  when we really take time and dig into and mull over, meditate on that truth of that Word. Whatever it is that is in front of you at that time. And I promise this will guarantee you fruit. Actually, God promises this in His Word and it’s not only a intellectual download that God gives us, it’s an understanding in our spirit that we just get it and he may give us an articulation for that or it may just be something that we used to wonder about and now it’s just a settled issue. It’s not a concern anymore.

That’s how we grow in trust with Him. And like I said, that’s how we get understanding, like Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:7.

Your Turn to Think Intentionally

So take some time this week. Make sure you’re spending that time carved out with God and taking time to think over what God is saying to you in His Word.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

On this episode:

This episode gives three important reasons to partner with God in your daily work.

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Opening

On today’s episode, three incredible reasons that you should partner with God in your daily work.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

One of the biggest components of Your Faith At Work is the idea of partnering with God. I want you to know that there are some very good reasons that we should do that and I want to give three of them today.

1. The Biblical Model

Now, the first is simply that it’s the biblical model. The Bible has a lot to say about work and God uses the work of His people and we have examples all throughout the scripture of God working together with His people. It’s a common thread from the beginning of the Bible in the Old Testament to the end of the Bible in the new Testament.

God gave Noah the plans to build the Ark. God gave Joseph answers to how to prepare for famine. Luke was a medical doctor who traveled with Paul. All kinds of examples in there from the Old Testament to the New.

2. Apostle Pauls’ Instructions

The second is that Paul explicitly says to work with God. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 3:9, he says that we are God’s fellow workers. And he says earlier in verse six and seven that we plant and we water. But God gives the growth. See, we’re working together now he’s talking about sharing the Gospel, about spreading God’s message, expanding His kingdom and influence, and also all of the work that we do.

The New Testament also talks about how God prepared good works for us to walk in and to bring Him glory.

3. God’s Infinite Wisdom and Knowledge

Now the third reason is that God has infinite wisdom and infinite knowledge. You know, James 4:2 says that we do not have, because we do not ask or we ask with wrong motivation. God is the originator of all wisdom, all knowledge.

And when we’re looking to come together to resolve issues or to know how to handle something or what to do next, what to focus on, what our priorities should be, God has that answer. Now, His word is filled with these kinds of answers and wisdom that we can apply to our lives and to our work. But it’s also His Holy Spirit that is in us, that is guiding us and directing us and giving us specific application for the things that we find in His Word.

Your Challenge

So partnership, partnering with God, relationship is essential to that. Now, what are you doing this week to enhance your relationship with Christ? So I want to say that, hey, involve God in your work and invite Him in. He wants to partner with you. He has not left you alone. Invite him in.

So think about that this week. What is going on in your work that you can come together and partner with God in because that’s exactly what He created you to do.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

On this episode:

This episode discusses how we all have a sphere of influence that God has given to us as a gift.

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Opening

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the sphere of influence that God has given to you.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

We all have a sphere of influence, an area of influence, whatever you want to call it, a domain where we can influence the things around us.

Assigned Influence by God

Now, Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, starting in verse 13. He talks about how God has assigned each one of us an area of influence. Now this could be your work. It could include all of your coworkers, your management, the people that may work for you, alongside you. Could be customers, clients, everybody you work with and certainly everybody in your family, and all your friends.

But it also includes the atmosphere and the circumstances that you find yourself in. The environment that you’re working in or that you’re just living in. Now, Paul talks about how he wanted his sphere of influence to increase and he wanted to do that so that he could extend God’s Kingdom there to bring God’s view on what’s happening, to share the Gospel there as well.

Increase and Use Your Influence

Wherever we are, whatever aspect of our sphere of influence we’re thinking about, even including social media. Paul talks about how he wants to increase that. And so we want to do the same and we want to speak God’s truth into whatever we’re doing to bring God’s perspective. To share the Gospel. Could be an encouraging word that you’re speaking to someone. Could be an opportunity arises for you to share the truth of God’s Word, what it says about a particular situation or a particular aspect, something that’s going on.

I want to encourage you just to think about it. Do you think about how you have influence?

No matter what. We want to influence that sphere. We don’t want to be influenced by that sphere in any sort of negative way. We want to be able to respond to what’s going on around us, but we want any influence on us to be filtered through what the Holy Spirit wants to do, especially when it comes to anything in the way of an attitude or something like that.

We want to be in control of that and the Lord, the Holy Spirit to be in control of that.

Reflect on Your Gift

So take some time to think about the sphere of influence that God has given to you as a gift, and think about how you’re using that and whether you’re being influenced by the things around you or whether you are doing the influencing.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

On this episode:

This episode discusses some of the pitfalls we need to avoid when it comes to our work.

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Opening

On this week’s episode, some potential pitfalls that we want to avoid when it comes to our faith at work.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Now at Your Faith At Work, we want to help you focus on your work the way God designed you to work. He created us to work and His image and we were created to work and engage with Him in our work and with this focus on work. However, there are simply potential pitfalls, some dangers that can come up that we want to make sure we’re aware of and that we avoid and we’re careful about.

In 1 Corinthians 10:31 it says, “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” and that certainly includes our work. God wants to use your work for your benefit. He wants to use it to develop you. He wants to use it to expand His kingdom. He wants to use it to develop people around you to bring about His will and His influence and to bring He glory through your work.

Pitfalls

Now this can’t be accomplished if work is not kept in its proper place. So what are a few of the pitfalls that we can have? Some potential dangers that can come through not having work in its right place? Well, one is that we can have a wrong motivation or a wrong approach to work. If our goal is just to get more, get more, get more, earn, earn, earn and it’s just to have more, that may not be the best motivation.

Now, if we have a wrong attitude and negative attitude or an “I deserve” attitude, a me kind of self-absorbed all about me and my work or that kind of mindset, that’s just about you. That’s also a pitfall that we could fall into and we want to make sure that’s not the case. While God certainly involves us in our work, it’s not about us.

Our work is about Him and about what He wants to do. And He wants us to serve Him, to serve others and to be a His representative to those around us and to bring Him into our work with us.

Another issue is overworking. You know, we can certainly work too much. We can spend too much time on our work. We can get that out of balance. A lot of times people think about work life balance, but really it’s more of a work life management, where it may be that we spend more time at work in one season of life. But we want to make sure we’re aware of that and that we’re aware of the potential issues with that and that we are conscious of it. And of course, we never want to sacrifice family or anything for the sake of work. God would not do that. God will keep everything in the right level to where we can work the way that God wants us to.

Now work can also become an idol where it becomes too important. It would just put it on this pedestal and that one job or that one a career or that one project or person. It is really going after it and focusing too much on that and not focusing on the Lord. Now certainly we can go after those things and God wants us to do that and to go hard after those things, but we have to have it in its right place. We need to pursue it with Christ in the middle of everything we’re doing and making sure that it’s about Him, which brings us to one final pitfall to talk about today.

Our identity must be in Christ. It cannot be in our work.

So do any of these potential pitfalls grab your attention this week. If they do, I want to encourage you to get alone with the Lord. Reflect on them, let Him work them out so that you can make sure that you are continuing to work with God the way He designed you to.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

On this episode:

This episode talks about the importance of prioritizing time alone with God.

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Opening

Is it better to be like Martha or Mary? Let’s talk about that. Have today’s episode.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Well, I’m sure that you have heard of the biblical story of Martha and Mary with Jesus where He’s in their house with them. And I want to start out just by reading that and talk about a few lessons. One key lesson that we can take from that today. This is in Luke chapter 10 starting in verse 38, it says, “Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house and she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went up to Him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her.’

What’s Jesus talking about? Well, she had an opportunity to sit at the feet of the Messiah, Jesus Christ and learn from Him. This was an incredible opportunity and she took advantage of it. Instead of being distracted with all the stuff that she needed to do like Martha was.

Be Like Mary

Well, obviously we want to be like Mary and prioritize our intimacy with Jesus. Our time alone carved out with the Lord. One of the things that I’ve really recognized is that in my walk with Christ, I can really tell a difference when carving that time out with the Lord is a priority in my life. Especially if I’m doing it in the morning, but if I’m doing it on a regular, consistent daily basis. Whether I’m reading the Bible, whether I’m journaling, whether I’m reading another book, whether I’m worshiping, whatever it is, fellowshipping with other believers as well.

But that time carved out alone with the Lord really sets everything up for just living out the way God planned us to live, to have what He wants us to have and to do what He wants us to do, go where He wants us to go.

I’ve noticed though, when I prioritize that and do that to start my day, everything else just seems to fall into place. That doesn’t mean everything goes perfect, but I certainly, I seem just more aware of my surroundings, more aware of what I need to be focused on, I feel like God is with me. I have clarity in the way that I’m walking and I feel I can sense God is there with me and guiding me when I prioritize that.

But when I don’t, I don’t have so much clarity with what I’m going to work on. There could be a thousand things I’m going to try and write about or record or talk about. I’m not sure which book I want to read, not your, this, that or that or the other thing, whatever it is, I just don’t have that kind of clarity.

But when I focus on that priority, prioritizing that time with Jesus, that time carved out with him, I get my priorities straight. I get what I need to work on. And like I said, everything just falls into place.

What About You?

So what about you? Are you more like Martha, where you gotta really just hurry and try and get everything done and just focus, focus on do, do, do? Or is your priority first to have that time alone with the Lord so that you can be set up to work on the right things at the right time and the right direction?

Well, I want to say that of course we’ve got to do things, but first needs to be the priority of our time alone with Jesus. So think about that this week and see how you can make sure you’re carving out that time, like Mary did, to be a disciple of Jesus and have that be the number one priority.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

On this episode:

This episode discusses the importance of boldness in the Christian life and how we can overcome shyness.

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Opening

Now is the time to be bold. Let’s talk about that on today’s episode.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

God always commands His people to be bold for Him and for His cause. All throughout the Bible and all throughout history of Christianity, people have been bold and now is the time for us to be bold.

Did you know that there are more people turning to Christ today for their salvation and eternal life than any other time in history? And this is happening at a time when there is more persecution for Christians than in the last 2000 years.

Maybe not in America, but in many countries around the world where Christianity is growing exponentially. People are being saved, giving their lives to Christ in places that you would not expect. In Israel, in China, and in many Arab countries. In all of these places, people are turning to Christ. This obviously is not in the media. That’s not where we look to see what’s happening with the Gospel and where it’s growing. Sometimes it’s in there, but we also can’t look to the leadership of a nation particularly to see what’s going on with Christianity in that nation.

So we have no reason to not be bold in living out our faith today. People are being put in jail. People are being taken away from their families. People are being killed for their faith in Jesus Christ, and they’re walking in boldness and living it out every day. So there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to do that in our work, especially now.

Reasons for No Boldness

What are some reasons that we wouldn’t want to be bold? Well, the first that comes to mind is perhaps there’s some compromise in our life, or something that we handle in a way that we’re a little shy to share about Christ. Because maybe we’re not representing him that well. Well then I would encourage you to deal with that.

If that’s the case, just get rid of it today. Today’s the day, tomorrow is the favorite day of the enemy. If it’s always tomorrow, it never comes. So we don’t want to wait till then. Deal with it right now.

The second one is maybe just a lack of familiarity. We walk in confidence with things that we’re familiar with. You get to know your job after some time there, then you’re more familiar. You’re more confident with it. And so I wanna just say that, if you’re not familiar and you’re not confident with maybe your knowledge of the scriptures or Christianity or doctrines, whatever it is, then just get familiar. Step out and God will show you in the right time what you need and maybe something’s coming to your mind right now that’s sort of a gap.

Well just take some steps to start moving forward with it and walk by faith with what you already know and God, when He sees that He can trust you with that, you’re going to get more and more and more and these opportunities will come up. So just take a step and get out there.

A third reason we would not be bold is maybe there’s social consequences. Perhaps looking bad or being made fun of or being worried about being cast out of a group or something like that. Well, our work and our life are not about us and are about Christ. We serve Him. If we really know Christ, we’ve given our life to Him. It’s about Him and what He wants to do.

Boldness Makes a Difference

This brings to mind a story of a friend of mine who was in the military. There was a group of people at this table and they asked him about something and he took a stand for Christ. Everybody kind of laughed and were saying, “whatever, get out of here.” And he just said, “okay, yep, see ya later, see ya around, I’m living for Christ now and that’s what I’m about.”

He didn’t let it phase him and over the next year, everyone at that table had come to him for something, one thing or another. Personal issues, something going on, questions about things that came up. Well, they knew they could trust him. So they came to him and he was able to help them out. And many of them came to know Christ through that.

If he hadn’t taken that original stand and been willing to put himself out there, none of that would’ve happened.

Your Boldness

So where do you need to be more bold today with your faith in Christ? Something in your work? Someone you need to talk to? Someone you need to pray with? Some issue you need to take a stand on? Maybe a public policy is something you want to get engaged with. Whatever’s on your heart, take a step now. Trust God and walk by faith. God is faithful and He will not let your boldness go to waste.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

In This Episode:

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Opening

On today’s episode, taking real ownership of the things you are responsible for.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Have you ever had a project or a goal or something that just didn’t seem to move forward? Could be because you haven’t given it attention or just seems too difficult, whether it’s at your work or your personal life? Well, I’ve certainly had this moments.

I think we all have these moments and the first significant time I can recall feeling this way was on my first engineering internship and during my mid summer review, my manager at the time told me that I needed to take ownership of what was my biggest project for the summer – for the three months I was going to be there. At first, I was insulted by the feedback. I thought, “how could he say that I wasn’t owning the project?” I was giving updates on it and talking to people about it and taking steps to move forward.

But the more I thought about it afterward, the more I could see that he was right.

Eyes Wide Open

Unconsciously, it didn’t really matter to me if the project succeeded or failed because I thought it was too complicated for an intern. Someone had said that to me. And I couldn’t see an obvious solution. So I kind of took a casual approach to it. But after he told me that I needed to take ownership, I could see that was exactly what I had been avoiding. Because if I didn’t take ownership of the project and it failed, I think my mind could believe that failure was outside my control and that there was nothing I could do about it. That’s a pretty sneaky trick.

The truth was that if I didn’t own it, the project would never have had a chance to be successful. So when I got more serious about ownership with that project, it opened my eyes to the steps I could take, people I could talk to and to the ideas I could try.

In the end it ended up being a successful project. I come back to that all the time since then.

From Excuses to Ownership

There may be impossible goals that your leadership has set or a very difficult relationship at work or even outside of work. And I’m certainly not perfect, but whenever I catch myself coming up with excuses, it’s a signal to me that there may be something I really need to take ownership of.

When you really own something, you go deeper into it. There’s a difference in approach. It unlocks ideas, creativity, passion gives you where you can move forward.

In the Bible, God prepared Queen Esther for a time when she would need to take a risk to accomplish what she needed to, and he was uniquely positioned for that. But if she didn’t take ownership of it, her nation would not have been saved. And after she took ownership and made the decision, then she got the strategy for how to move forward.

We can never be reminded of this too often. There’s a book called Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink. He’s a former navy seal commander. A very intense guy. And he says that “leaders must own everything in their world. There’s no one else to blame.”

Whether you lead people projects or initiatives, you know you’re a leader and if you don’t own it, then we’ll always have excuses that will stand in the way of success. And we need to take true responsibility for the results if we want to see them, whatever it is that we’re looking at.

God Has A Plan

God has a plan for each of us. He has a path, He’s designed it, He’s guiding us, shaping us, preparing us. And we always got to remember that we need to be faithful even in the little things. If we want God to use us for the big things, sometimes we understand every detail of it. And other times it seems like we know nothing and we need to learn how to trust God and to move forward.

Galatians 3:23 says that whatever we do, what to do it with our whole heart and to do it as those for the Lord and not for man.

So what is it that you need to take ownership of? Whatever it is that you’re feeling convicted of right now, bigger, small. Take real ownership of it this week and see what God will do with it.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

In This Episode:

In This Episode:

This episode discusses how to handle times when we are not appreciated or recognized for the work that we do.

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Episode Transcript:

Opening

On today’s episode, what to do when you’re not appreciated in your work.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

I’m sure that you’ve had a time in your life or in your work where you were not recognized for something you had done or people didn’t appreciate what you had done.

Jesus and the Lepers

This reminds me of the time when Jesus healed the 10 lepers. This is in Luke 17 starting in verse 11. He healed the 10 lepers. He told them to go to the priests and they’d be cleansed and they were, all of them were healed. But only one of them came back to praise Him and to thank Him for what He had done in verse 16.

Now the other nine, their lack of appreciation didn’t distract Jesus from his mission. It didn’t make Him regret what He had done. It didn’t make Him change Him mind or Him approach on anything. It didn’t phase Him at all with what He was there to do. His mission wasn’t to get the praise and recognition of others. Of course not.

There are times in our work when we certainly don’t feel appreciated or recognized. It may happen all the time to some of us. It could come through criticism or ripping on a little piece of something that you have done or a small piece of feedback that overshadows the rest of everything you’ve done that’s been great.

Stolen Recognition

Well, I remember a time when someone actually took credit for something that I had done in an effort that I had led. They were congratulated in notice sent out to a big organization and they didn’t redirect the praise where it should have gone. Which would have been to a team and me that had done the actual work.

I was pretty angry with this for what had happened and I couldn’t think of a good way to bring it up without looking bad and just having it not go the way I wanted it to. So I just decided to let it go. Well, God saw the kind of work I did. He knew He could trust me to give my best. But the thought did cross my mind that, well, maybe I shouldn’t even do this work if it’s not going to be appreciated.

True Motivation

Well, that made me reflect on my true motivation. Just like Jesus wasn’t phased by the lack of recognition, I didn’t want to be phased by that either. So when these things come up, it’s in these situations that God can use it. It’s what happens internally inside of us that matters and what he cares about.

The key is to not get discouraged. It may surface things that we don’t like about ourselves. That’s natural. That’s okay, but we need to run to Christ as soon as we see it. We need to give it to the Lord and we need to learn to lean on Him and let our confidence in our identity be built up in Him.

What Work is Really About

Our work is about God. It’s not about us. So in these kinds of times we can think about what God might want to do in a situation and how He wants to work on us. Your reward is with the Lord and Him seeing what you’re doing and knowing that you’re giving your best. Our reward is not from people or from the recognition of others.

So the next time you don’t get recognized or you feel unappreciated, remember Colossians 3:23, that we are to work with our whole heart and we work for the Lord and not for man.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

In This Episode:

This episode discusses what biblical faith really is and how we can walk forward by faith in our daily work.

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Episode Transcript:

Opening

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about what biblical faith really is.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org To learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

When it comes to your faith at work, there is an obvious term that we want to be crystal clear on the meaning of, which is faith. So today we want to talk a little bit about that, what it means, and how we can walk forward with faith and what God can do with that faith. Now to start off faith is really just trust or confidence. It’s assurance of something, a conviction that it’s true. This is from the Greek word pistis is the noun form in the new testament that’s used over 240 times. This is just confidence or trust in something or someone, the Lord, and everybody has faith in something. We have faith or trust in a doctor that we go to see, we have faith or trust in a chair that we’re going to sit in that is going to hold us up.

This is sort of a practical faith, but what are we as Christians called to have faith in? While there’s a supernatural faith that as Christ followers, we’re called to have faith in God and His abilities, what He can do. We serve a God that created the universe out of nothing. He created everything and He knows what’s coming at us. An example I like to give is a kid jumping in a swimming pool. Now the kid is looking around, may not know how to swim, but the dad is saying, “jump in the pool, I’ll catch you.” And the kid may be scared, doesn’t know what’s going to happen, but he trusts his dad, so he decides to jump in the pool in the dead, catches him and everything is great. And the more he does that, the more he’ll trust his dad and what his dad says and it goes from there.

It’s the same with us. We trust in the Lord and the more we step out, the more we trust Him and the more we get to know Him. God is all knowing. God is everywhere. He’s outside space and time. He knows the future. He has a plan for you and for me. There’s no reason we can’t trust God with everything, but there’s two points I want to make here. Number one, the kid ignored his circumstances. He looked around and he was scared, but he still stepped out because he trusted his father and he took action. He didn’t just trust him and then walk away knowing that he actually jumped. He actually jumped into the water for his dad to catch him. And it’s the same for us. We need to walk forward with confidence and what we believe about God and His word and what He says about us, regardless of the circumstances around us.

God is with us, no matter what we’re doing. But we need to take action. We need to actually jump into the pool. We need to actually go forward with it. So faith comes from God. Ephesians 2:8-9 says that, and we have faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation, and we have faith to trust God for the promises. We can look at Hebrews 11 which is called the hall of faith. It gives an incredible summary of the lives of great men and women in the Bible that experienced outstanding victories. They were willing to walk forward by faith. Noah, there was no rain, but he trusted God would send the rain, so he built the Ark. Abraham and his wife were very old, but they trusted what God said, that they would have a child and make many nations from them.

Esther risked her life to save her nation. She was called to do that. And Moses left Egypt without a map. And then they ended up coming to the Red Sea and God split the Red Sea. So they walked forward in faith and trusting in the God that they served.

So what about us today? What about your work?

Do you trust God that He has a plan for you and your life and your work? Do you trust Him with to use everything for your good? There are a lot of difficulties that come up in our work and can we trust Him with that? Of course we can, but we need to be able to walk forward. We know that trust is there. We need to walk forward in faith. So take some time this week to reflect on the One that we have faith in. Pray. Ask him to grow your faith. Read the testimonies in the Bible to grow your faith and know that you can walk forward in boldness and faith in the God we serve.

Closing

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