iWork4Him PowerThought

What if you could experience God in your work? We mean, WHILE you do your work.  In speaking with pastor and author John Van Sloten the other day, he said when we feel delight in doing our job in the moment, that IS God. When we are creating, doing work that brings us joy with our unique giftedness, we are experiencing God. How about you?  What if you prayed today, and asked God to attune you to H...

In Christianity, disciple means a dedicated follower of Jesus. ... A disciple in the ancient biblical world actively imitated both the life and teaching of the master.   So how about you? Are you ACTIVELY imitating the LIFE and the TEACHING of Christ? Have you been living this out in one area of your life and not the others? .... What about your workplace ? Have you ever considered your workplace...

Learned something new just recently from a friend who runs an organization in C learwater, Florida. They practice "redemptive hiring." It's the practice of hiring someone, when God points them out and moves them to, for the purpose of mentoring them, and bringing them closer to God. Then God does the redeeming work. How COOL IS THAT? .... Using your business to change someone's life. To minister t...

The peace that is beyond all understanding. Do you have it? Is it flowing out of you? .... Do you look different? .... Act differently? .... Think differently than the others around you?  .... A Christ-follower is the one at work people wonder about. They wonder HOW can they be so calm? And they are attracted to this person because of it. Why? Because they exude an inexplicable peace. So how about...

Are you an underground evangelist? Our friends at Helping Hands Charitable are.  This is how they see it: It's not what we speak, it's what we do .   If you work in a company that does not allow or recognize Christianity, there IS something you can do. You can bring Christ into your workplace in a winsome and engaging way. HOW?  By how you ACT.  Our actions speak louder than our words anyway, so w...

Conflict. It's a reality. It's not a question of IF , it's a question of WHEN .  Conflict doesn't have to be bad.  It actually has some positive things going for it: it causes us to grow, to find common ground, to open up dialogue, to find a win-win solution, and stretches us and our creativity, to think outside the box. ....  So how about you?  How well versed are YOU in conflict resolution? .......

Under pressure, we either run to God, or away from God. James Barnett, President of Dayspring shared that thought with us one day.  So how about you? How are you handling pressure and stress today? .... Are you taking it to the Lord in prayer? .... For His direction? .... For His response on how YOU should respond? .... Do you need the words? .... The courage? .... The perseverance? .... The wisdo...

There's a burden we all share as working Christians: The Poor. We, the body of Christ, are the answer.  It takes 5-7 YEARS to move a person from a poverty mentality to self-sufficiency. It takes our hands and feet. It takes a life on life commitment. Poverty will NOT be solved by throwing money at it. But you CAN fund the hands and feet who are called to work with the poor day to day. With your pa...

Jon Evans, President & CEO, eCom Systems out of Sarasota, Florida said in an interview the other day: When we come to Christ, we get all of Him, but does He get all of us? That's the real question.  .... What a soul-shaking question. Did Christ get ALL of YOU in your conversion? Are you holding some part of your life, like your work, away from Him? Keeping it from His influence?  From His authorit...

As we start our work week, let's remind ourselves of our calling to our work and God's plan for our work. Declare this now as you head to work today, walk to your office, or sit down to do your devotions. … "My workplace is my mission field, a place of full-time ministry… My workplace ministry manual is my Bible. …My calling to my workplace is not a second-class calling…. I dedicate my workplace a...

Many of us think we should be shoring up our weaknesses. Thinking what we're bad at has to be fixed . The better approach is to know our strengths , what we're best at, and leverage those.  And to remember the SOURCE of our strength. Do you know your strengths? The strengths of your team members? " There is something within the human spirit that wants to resist the thought of weakness. Many times...

UNAPOLOGETIC.  It's being without apology. An executive of a Colorado company told us the other day: We are unapologetic that we run our company based on Christian principles.   WOW. And that got me thinking…am I running my organization unapologetically? And if I'm wondering, maybe you should be wondering too.  Unapologetically Christian – it means to live and work transparently, showing others th...

Bill Johnson, an HR director of a Colorado car dealership told us recently: " I hate the phrase: 'Leave your problems at the door when you come to work.' That's not reality. They CANNOT leave those things at the door."   Isn't this what we have been told and have believed all our working lives?  That work is NO PLACE to be transparent, or show weakness? .... A Christ-LED workplace is the opposite....

I wonder how many times a day we offer our opinion. Ten times? Twenty times? Thirty times? I was thinking about this after hearing a friend tell me how she handles her teenagers when they ask her a question. She says: "I'm not going to tell you my opinion. Here is what the bible says about it."  WOW. So how does that apply to us and our work?  At work, you don't have to "CITE CHAPTER AND VERSE", b...

When I become better at who I am, in other words who God created me to be, I can contribute to the team more. That's a quote from Scott Ramsey, a team member of one of the most God-honoring companies we have had the pleasure of being partnered with. And it's at the core of their success as a business. When each team member seeks to know themselves, to honor God with their unique gifts and talents,...

Part-time Christianity. Is there such a thing? .... Os Hillman, founder of Marketplace Leaders, says "There are no part-time Christians." There SHOULDN'T be, but there sure ARE.  Many believers today are changing their description of themselves to "Christ-follower", vs. Christian. ....  WHY is that? Because perhaps the term Christian has gotten so watered down that it fails to have much meaning th...

A Prayer for a God-Honoring Work Life: Father, I come before you thankful that you have made work a part of life and given us the opportunity to glorify you in our work. Establish the work of our hands by helping us to be loving, kind, patient, focused, and insightful. Keep us from distraction and conflict, replace our egos with love. May the Holy Spirit lead us in our work and help us to be joyfu...

What mountain are YOU climbing? .... This thought is inspired by writer Stephanie Winslow who uses the visual of our faith journey as climbing a mountain . As a Christian, we should be climbing the mountain of faith towards Christ, who is at the top. HE is our goal. ....  If you are climbing another mountain, perhaps of achievement or business success, we invite you right now, today, to get OFF th...

Silence. .... .... It can be used STRATEGICALLY to make a point, ....  to be used to EMPHASIZE something .... or, to communicate something effectively without words. Silence, when used in response to someone else's need, can communicate something that we DO NOT INTEND,  .... that we do not care, ....  Or, that we are judging the other person. .... How are YOU being silent in your workplace?  .... ...

Do you want to see your workplace as a place to live out your faith? Your work is a place where you finally get that chance to be involved in fulltime ministry. Then do these things. 1st Start praying for those you work around, by name every day. 2nd look for ways to serve those same people over and above what your job requires you to do. 3rd look for ways to build a friendship with those you work...

We all have a calling, have you heard this before? Some of us get called to the pulpit and some to the foreign mission field but most of us get called to our cubicles, construction sites, care facilities or whatever your job site may be. Your Workplace, It's your mission field and in that mission field, you and me, we may be the only Jesus our co-workers, employees and bosses may ever meet. That J...

Love, Dignity, Respect. .... Three simple words.  Love, Dignity, Respect.    What do they have to do with your workplace? ....  If someone were to visit your workplace, would they see these in action? .... What about you? .... Are you giving love, dignity and respect to all the people you encounter in your workplace? Or do you reserve it for only those you believe are worthy of it?  .... We challe...

What if the only business book we had was the bible? How would we do business differently? .... And what if we only had Jesus's words to do business by? .... Every workplace leader we've spoken to (and the number is now in the thousands) basically summarizes their leadership philosophy as this: " My number one job as owner and president of the company is to take care of my people first. To love an...

Seems like there is an unlimited number of worldly solutions to every business problem we encounter. There are formulas, theories, the current "theory of work", or leadership or "how to make your customer rabid fans of your business."  But the more I hear from Christ-following business folks, the more convinced I am that there is only ONE answer to every workplace situation. .... Jesus Christ. ......

Dan Anderson from Kingdom Way Ministries has a powerful saying. Kingdom Way Ministries wants to turn Sunday's inspiration Into Monday's perspiration !  .... What a great motto to write down,  stick in your bible and pull out on Sunday morning during church while you listen to the sermon.  What if you listened with ears that asked "How does what the pastor is preaching relate to my work?  .... The...