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 comm...

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 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...

Our country needs healing, and it starts with bringing healing to your workplace .   Frederick Buechner once said, "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." I believe the greatest need is the healing of the lost and broken. Likely you have noticed brokenness in your workplace that needs to be healed. What are you doing about it? Praying ab...

Our country needs healing, and it starts with bringing healing to your workplace .     Frederick Buechner said, "Pay attention to the things that bring a tear to your eye or a lump in your throat because they are signs that the Holy is drawing near." What injustice in your community brings you to tears? Homelessness, poverty, joblessness, sexual exploitation? What can you do about it? God provided...

Our country needs healing, and it starts with bringing healing to your workplace. There is brokenness in us, in our world, work, and community. There is healing in Jesus. Today as you have zoom calls, meetings, sales calls, service calls, or power lunches, look for the broken around you through God's eyes. See people the way He sees them… as Image bearers. In following Jesus, we are to be like Him...

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...

Unforgiveness can destroy us. God knows our heart of flesh can become hardened and lifeless if the wounds we have received are not allowed to heal. Jesus told all his disciples that we are to forgive others as we would like God to forgive us. In the workplace, there are people who look out for only themselves. Many times, their actions and attitudes can create in us something very unholy. We may f...