iWork4Him PowerThought

I think it's safe to say that the media focuses on, and provides negative news these days.  Should we just take it, and keep feeding ourselves this negativity? How does this affect your work? Do you take it with you?  What are you chatting with your co-workers about?   And are you feeding the beast of "all that's wrong with world"?    Or are you speaking life at work.   We can, and should consciou...

I heard a clever quip the other day about trying to take control from God's hands. God is writing the story of your life: so STOP TRYING TO GRAB THE PEN FROM HIS HAND!   This applies to our work as well. Sometimes we think we are living God's plan for us in our work when we are actually just "taking Jesus with us".  And only praying to Him to ask for blessings on what we are doing at work. How can...

Being intentional seems to be a consistent hallmark of followers of Christ. Because Christ is our best example of intentionality.   Intentionality is defined as being deliberate or purposeful.   How about you? How are you working with intentionality today? In the office, with your co-workers, intentionally representing Christ and showing His love and patience to everyone you come in contact with?...

Have you ever wondered what the benefits would be, if you turned your company over to God? Would the profits fly out the window and productivity take a nose-dive?    We've polled Christ-following employers and their employees and here's what THEY say the benefits are:  Increasingly happier and more stress free employees (which leads to increasing productivity, less absenteeism and much higher rete...

Have you ever experienced a major upheaval in your business or work life?  Something that looked like it was taking you in the opposite direction of where you were headed?  Or was (you thought) the next logical step?   It's highly possible that God is using this to move you to exactly where HE wants you to be.  For HIS work, in HIS time, for THIS season. Let Romans 8:28 encourage you today, and we...

What if today, we committed to operate our businesses from a philosophy of "It's not about WHAT we sell or HOW MUCH we sell,   it's about the LIVES we TOUCH and CHANGE."     That's "God's way of doing business".    And it's the exact OPPOSITE of everything we have been taught as professional business people.   But isn't that always God's way?    This counter-cultural philosophy is rooted in Matthe...

You know, as Martha and I have met, and interviewed hundreds of Christian business leaders over the past eight years, the best one sentence that sums up "faith at work", comes from the team at Kingdom at Work.  It's this: "When a kingdom leader engages in a kingdom style, then a kingdom culture within the company emerges and the kingdom of God is advanced."    God's process of transformation start...

As a business leader, if you turned your business over to God, what would that look like?   What would be the result?   Hundreds of business owners we've interviewed over the past eight years have done it. They say the result is a DEEP sense of peace vs. stress, pressure, and tension.   And a new, deepening understanding of their role as a STEWARD of God's business, vs. "being the OWNER of it".   ...

Every one of us in ministry.   What? No, you say, I'm a CPA, I'm an engineer, I manage people at a construction company.  Yes, and you are called to be an Ambassador for Christ there.    The Apostle Paul agrees, as he wrote to the Ephesians, in Chapter 6 I am in chains now, still preaching this message as God's ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him, as I should.    If Pau...

I learned something new talking with a Physical Fitness company owner in Nashville. The only gift God has given us that we can control 100% is our body. What we eat, how we take care of it, what we feed it, if we are exercising it. Reminds me of Luke 11:36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you...

If you are like me you jump up out of bed, check for emergency text messages, check the weather, rush through your morning devotional time so you can get on to the real work of the day. Just recently Martha and I were reading a book by Kim Avery "The Prayer Powered Entrepreneur" and she suggests a different approach. Kim suggests that when we have our morning quiet time, be quiet and ask our Lord...

The wonder-woman complex. It's an unrealistic belief that we as women need to be everything to everybody. Where did that come from? And what's it doing to us? What if instead of trying to BE wonder-woman, we commit to be who God created us to be. .... To get to know our spiritual gifts, talents, strengths, and then went in search of God's heart, to find our true calling? .... What if every woman o...

Darren Shearer, founder of High Bridge Media said recently :   A disciple making company disciples the people in it, the industry it's in, and even the community around it. WOW, now that is a tall order.  It sounds IMPOSSIBLE. But God….If God is truly behind your company, if He is IN your company, than that statement is supernaturally possible. So how about you? Is your company making disciples of...

Are you dreading Monday? Do you start to lose your joy come Sunday evening? .... What if instead of dreading Monday, you LOOKED FORWARD TO IT? What if instead of moaning about Monday, you prayed away your dread, and replaced it with thanks, and joy and intention? .... To pray that come Monday morning, you would FEEL GOD in your work, as you work. That your work would glorify God, that you would be...

When's the last time you really saw your co-workers?  .... Saw them as real three-dimensional people?  Not just a co-worker, workplace mate or just an employee?  When's the last time you remembered, that they're a son or daughter of God? .... That they were created, like you, by God, for a purpose. That they are worthy. That they have a life, and that life is just as important as yours.  That they...

For in six days the Lord made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord blessed the  Sabbath  day and set it apart as holy.   So how about you?  Are you resting from your work? Are you taking a day off every week and keeping it holy? Are you honoring God with your business and keeping the Sabbath, not only for yourself, but for...

Are you feeling as though you're just going to work on auto-pilot? That you can do your work now, with your eyes closed, with one arm tied behind your back?  When's the last time you asked God to stretch YOU , in your work? Comfort is not a place Christ-followers should be camping out in. .... So how about you ? Are you brave enough, to ask "Lord, will you stretch me today? Will you put me to bett...

Are you a leader in your organization? If so, what are you doing to care for your team members? Your employees?  Are you ignoring the big stresses in their lives? If you are, it could be costing you in a big way. For example: The divorce of a $60,000  a year employee will cost $86,000 in lost productivity.  There are legal, low cost remedies to helping your employees get the help they need to calm...

At work, sometimes we walk away from a meeting or conversation and think to ourselves "Boy, that person sure needs some fixing." But, in reality, if we took a moment, and thought more carefully about it, maybe even looked a little deeper, we may just see what needs to be fixed is US, not them. Leaders know this. They know that the organization is a reflection of WHO they are and WHO they are being...

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...

Some things in life are more challenging than others. Like finances. And even more challenging: How do we glorify God with our finances?  If you think you've mastered your finances, there's a next step, a better way to glorify God with them. To transform the money we make from working for the Lord, and seeing that it is invested in Kingdom building. It's called Biblically Responsible Investing and...

I wonder how much of our life is lived from a place of "taking". Not consciously, but just getting up and living our life, as we go to work and just delve in. I've found my unconscious self is pretty selfish . If I don't pray first, submit in obedience, my day, my hands, my mouth, eyes and ears, to serve all those I come in contact with, I'll just spend all day at work taking what I need and want....

Is God building another testimony for you, through your workplace? Often, hard times come in our work, and we're called to respond as a Christ-follower. Not react with fear, self-pity, anger, resentment or push-back. But with a keen sense and trust that God is sovereign in our work. That He may have brought something to an end, for His Glory, not our punishment.  So how about YOU? .... Are YOU goi...

How do you measure your work success?  We're referring to eternal success in your work.  One way is to ask yourself:  Is my workplace better off because of having me work there?  Have I changed it for the better?  Would my co-workers say that I am a blessing to work with?  A roofing business owner in Florida told us he takes an inventory every year, looks back at the year to see what benefit or go...

Jon Dengler, a ministering bicycle business owner in Tampa, said this about his business and its ministry: By doing our work, we're rehearsing a reality that we're dreaming of. We're trying to usher in the coming Kingdom.  Phenomenal. He is using all of his gifts… daily… and working as if his current work is representing the Kingdom. He is re-creating the Kingdom today , in his city, in all he doe...