Issue 222
What would you say are the tools of your trade – a spade, a scalpel, a microphone, maybe a computer or a car or a phone? Perhaps your main asset is your brain or your experience. Everybody has their toolkit. For some it is obvious because they carry their toolbox, whereas for others it is not visible but neither is it really hidden. You can measure yourself, if you want to, by how skilfully or even regularly you use your toolkit. You can then measure how lucrative is the outcome of such usage and how influential you are as the user.
If you are a Christian you have an unseen toolkit to use for doing good. We have been looking at it for a few weeks but it is worth checking on its usage and not just looking at its quality. The toolkit comprises giving, praying and fasting (with forgiving as a lubricant), so you might like to ask how much you are using your toolkit at work. Are you giving regularly, in the vast variety of ways that would make a difference? Are youprovoking a culture of giving which leads to a satisfaction of real need? How are you doing at spotting and taking opportunities to give?
Again, is secret prayer the hallmark of your preparation for work, maintenance of work and problem solving at work?
What about fasting? Have you used this tool to serve the purposes for which it is designed? Have you ever fasted in connection with your work?
These tools are not just for the weekend, they are for all day every day. They are a also a diagnostic review kit for you to use to see how you are doing. You can ask yourself how well and regularly you are using the tools to do good, influence others and make a difference.
They are supposed to be used in secret and will complement the other tools of your trade. When used in secret however there will be an effect on your working week and that of others. They won’t be useful if you keep them locked in the toolbox.
Matthew 6:1-18
1″Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2″So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
5″And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9″This, then, is how you should pray:
” ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your
name, 10your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ 14For if you
forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
16″When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 17But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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