iWork4Him PowerThought

It shouldn't surprise us. Our God, who is a God of order, design, and truth, knows what our priorities should look like. The number five priority should be our hobbies and volunteer work. God, Spouse, Kids, Work – they all come first. When your church volunteering gets in the way of family, spouse, and even work time, everyone gets disgruntled. If your volunteer work causes you to neglect your kid...

It shouldn't surprise us. Our God, who is a God of order, design, and truth, has a clear answer for our priorities. Our Number 4 priority should be our work. Work is a gift from God, just as our relationships are. Work is necessary to shape our character and pay our bills. Work is designed to have a start and an end every day. Everything unravels when work is a higher priority than our families an...

It shouldn't surprise us. Our God, who is a God of order, design, and truth, has a clear answer for our priorities. Our Number 3 priority should be our relationship with our kids. I know that not everyone listening has kids but listen for your friends. When our kids run our priorities list instead of being in 3 rd place, the whole family is a mess, especially you. Our lives are not supposed to rev...

It shouldn't surprise us. Our God, who is a God of order, design, and truth, has a clear answer for our priorities. Our Number 2 priority should be your relationship with your spouse if you are married. Everything else but God should be prioritized behind your spouse. So often, this gets really messed up. We put work first, and everything else just    ends up in a mess. When we get married, we are...

It shouldn't surprise us. Our God, who is a God of order, design, and truth, has a clear answer for our priorities. Our Number one priority should be our relationship with Him. Our quiet time, our calendars, our checkbooks and our screen time reflect this. When God doesn't take first place in our lives, we always seem to be hurried and harried, never getting enough done. When our daily schedule re...

What's the purpose of business? God designed business to be a blessing to your community. What does that look like? It means that the service you provide is always done with excellence. It means your product is safe and does exactly what you say it will do. Your community is everybody you serve. But the community also means the area around where your business resides . Being a blessing to your com...

What's the purpose of business? God designed business to be a blessing to the employees of the business. What's that look like? It means paying your people well, treating your people nicely, providing a safe work environment, and listening to them. There are so many things you can do to be a blessing to your employees, but number one is they need to be loved… Have you ever asked your employees how...

What's the purpose of business? God designed business to be a blessing to the vendors that supply your business. What does that look like? It means ordering your supplies well in advance. It means being respectful on the phone when you're making your orders. It means paying your bills on time. It means telling others about the quality of service you receive from the vendors. If your business is bl...

What's the purpose of business? God designed business to be a blessing to the customers of the business. That may sound oversimplified, but if your customers aren't feeling blessed by your product or service, then you won't have a business for very long . What does it look like to be a blessing to your customers? It means that the product that you provide is well-built, long-lasting, and meets the...

What's the purpose of business? God designed business to be a blessing to the business owner and his/her family. What does that look like? A paycheck, or is it more? Of course, a business needs to provide an income to the owner, but it must also help his/her marriage and family to flourish. If your business is robbing your family of your time, then it's not a blessing. If your business isn't provi...

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip .  But how much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field ?  We need to prepare our openness to God's leading as we work .  All day long, decisions need to be made .  You will also be presented with opportunities for conversations .  How often do you stop before you make that decision and say, "God, what do you...

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip .  But how much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field ?  We need to prepare our strength daily .  I'm not sure who said it first, but whoever said it was right .  Breakfast is the most important meal of the day .  Exercise isn't a bad idea either .  If you never get to eat a decent breakfast and never get a...

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip .  But how much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field ?  We need to prepare our souls daily as we get ready for work .  What does that mean ?  So often, our souls have been hurt and damaged by the people we work with and the people we live with .  Preparing our souls means forgiving those who have sinned aga...

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip .  How much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field ?  We need to prepare our minds daily as we get ready for work .  What does that mean ?  Spending time in God's word, prayer, journaling, and just plain quiet time .  If we jump out of bed, get ready for work, and take off down the driveway, our minds will be...

We can spend a whole year preparing for a short-term mission trip .  But how much time have you spent preparing for your workplace mission field ?  We need to prepare our hearts daily as we get ready for work .  What does that mean ?  It means confessing our sins to our heavenly Father before our day starts .  Confessing just means agreeing with God for what He already knows about our attitudes an...

I have this funny thing that I do. When I ask people how they're doing, I mean it. So if I ask someone, "How are you doing?" and they say, "Fine," I respond with, "Really? Freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. No, how are you really doing?"  And I mean it. Then I shut up and listen. When someone shares from their heart after you've had that exchange, it opens the door for the next step....

I grew up in a household where faith and work were lived out daily. My mom and my dad prayed over their business all the time. So it wasn't new for me to see a connection between faith and work and prayer when Jim and I got married. However, we had never been discipled to understand the relationship between faith and work. I saw it lived out in my dad' s and my mom' s lives, but JIM had never seen...

How about praying for that bad boss or coworker who you struggle with? Most of the reason you likely struggle with them, is that they are not living or leading with the Holy Spirit's guidance, but how could we ever expect them to, if they don't know God? Now if you're like me, it's still tough to get yourself to pray for bad superiors. But again, like everyone, they have burdens, internal struggle...

Our God is a God of order. Look at His creation. In our bodies, every heartbeat and breath works with a thousand other systems to maintain life in every fiber of our being. The chemical balance within the kidney is precisely controlled, the fluid pressure in every cell is maintained , and our sleep tonight will initiate a series of brainwaves that defy even the experts to explain their purpose, rh...

We live in the midst of a non-stop world. Our responsibilities at home and work fill our thoughts the instant we wake up, then run with us throughout the day. Our jobs, meetings, phones, TV, personal trials and temptations are relentless, noisy invaders that drive us all our waking hours. The result – we can't hear God in our life, not enough anyway .  Would you recognize the Lord's soft voice if...

I have never worked a manufacturing line .  But I know this .  If people don't do their jobs at the manufacturing plants, then many items we count on wouldn't be made .  If you feel like you're just a manufacturing worker and want to quit your job to go into full-time ministry .  Don't !  That's a disaster .  Your job is so critical to the lives of thousands of people, perhaps millions .  God has...

I've been in sales before .  For 10 years, I worked in Christian retail .  I actually worked at a Christian bookstore inside of a church .  Every day I had to manage employees, manage stock, keep track of sales, and please the people that owned the store .  I loved selling people things they needed .  I sold lots of Bibles .  I sold lots of books .  I sold lots of gifts .  I sold a lot of music . ...

You might say, All I ever do is clean up after people .  As a janitor, I'm sweeping floors day in and day out .  I clean them, and other people get them dirty .  I clean the bathrooms, and they get dirty again .  I just want a job that matters .  I'm gonna quit my job and go into full-time ministry .  STOP .  You are not just a janitor .  You have a unique set of gifts, talents, and abilities that...

I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine .  She said to me " I'm a really good accountant but I'm thinking about quitting my job and going to work in a church. I just want my work to make a difference .  I want my work to matter to God." So I said, " You are not just an accountant .  You are someone uniquely gifted by God to work with numbers .  You organize those numbers so they m...

If I hear one more person say that their job doesn't make a difference so they're going to quit their job and go work in full time ministry - I'm gonna explode .  You're not just a plumber .  You're a plumber who loves Jesus and who's really good at keeping people's water flowing, their toilets flushing, their drains draining and their hot water hot .  You're a blessing to everybody you serve beca...