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August 12, 2024

Tips For the Christian Life, Part Three

by Jason Neill

Scripture reading: Daniel 5-6; Romans 6:1-23; Colossians 3:1-17

In keeping with the last two posts, I thought I would provide some final tips for the Christian life. I hope these are helpful.

Tip #11: Learn about your new identity in Christ (see Romans 6:1-23). When you trusted in Christ alone for eternal life, you changed. You look the same on the outside; however, there are spiritual realities that occurred within you that are just as real as physical realities. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer in his Systematic Theology textbook mentioned 33 riches we possess consequently the moment we trusted in Christ for eternal life. I won’t mention all 33 here, but I’ll list a few.

We are redeemed (Romans 3:24), we are reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:17-21), we are forgiven of all our sins (Colossians 2:13), we are regenerated (i.e., born again, born spiritually) (John 3:3; Titus 3:5), we are justified (i.e., declared righteous) (Romans 4:5), we are delivered from the kingdom of darkness and placed in the kingdom of The Son (Colossians 1:13), we are partakers of the holy and royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:5), we are raised spiritually and seated with Christ (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1-4), we are complete in Him (Colossians 2:9-10), and we possess every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3-14).

Tip #12: Develop an attitude of prayer. The means by which we cultivate our relationship with God is prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “pray continually” (NIV). It doesn’t mean we walk around all day with our eyes closed; however, it does mean we live with a constant attitude of prayer. We have the privilege of talking with our heavenly Father throughout the day regarding what is on our minds. Unfortunately, we often don’t take advantage of that privilege.

To those of you who are old enough, remember the days when we could call someone, and we’d get a busy signal? Beep, beep, beep, beep. We would hang up the phone, wait 5 minutes, then dial it again hoping to get through. Those days are long gone; however, God is never too busy to take our calls. He never asks us to “call back.” We never hear an automated voice say, “thank you for calling Heaven. We are experiencing a high number of calls at the moment; however, your call is very important to us, please hold on the line and we will get to you in the order in which your call was received.” That never happens, thank goodness.

Please know that God longs to hear from you! He knows everything about you and what will happen today before you do, nevertheless, He wants you to tell Him what you are thinking, what you are feeling, and the matters that concern you most.   

Tip #13: View your work as sacred versus secular. Colossians 3:23-24 reads, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (NIV).

When I was in college, I thought the only two ways I could serve God was either becoming a pastor or a missionary. I remember taking a course in psychology and learning that I could serve God as a Christian counselor. A whole new world opened to me. Regrettably, I think this may be the attitude of some believers. They see their jobs as a medical doctor, electrician, plumber, business owner, grocery store clerk, fast-food worker, EMS technician, nurse, schoolteacher, police officer, firefighter etc. as secular.

The Bible does not make a distinction between secular and sacred because everything we do is sacred. We can serve God in our respective fields. We do so by being a witness in our jobs (see Matthew 5:13-16). When we live out our faith in the workforce, we demonstrate what it would look like if Jesus were a medical doctor, or an electrician, or a plumber, or a business owner, or a grocery store clerk, or a fast-food worker, or an EMS technician, or a nurse, or a schoolteacher, or a police officer, or a firefighter etc.

The Apostle Paul states “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (NIV). In other words, view Jesus as your true boss. Yes, you have an earthly boss; however, your ultimate boss is Christ because you will give an account to Him of how well you carried out your responsibilities (see Romans 14:10; 2 Corinthians 5:10; these verses reference the judgment seat of Christ which is a judgment all Christians will appear before, not to determine their salvation but to evaluate how well we used our time, talent, and treasure to serve God; see also Luke 19:11-27).

Do you show up to work on time? Do you work diligently at your job? Do you cut corners? Do you leave work early hoping the boss won’t notice? These are important questions to consider since those we work with may make an evaluation of Christianity based on how we live out our faith at our place of employment. The workplace is a great opportunity for us to be different, to show that Christians work differently than non-believers because we ultimately report to Jesus of Nazareth, and we want Him to be pleased with our efforts (see Matthew 25:14-30).    

It may be helpful to take some time and review the following Bible passages that address how we view our employment: Proverbs 6:9-11; 12:11; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Ephesians 6:5-9; Colossians 3:22-24. It may also be helpful to read about the life of Daniel in the Old Testament. He is an example of what it means to be a believer in God and yet work in, what we would call, a secular environment; namely, a government job (see Daniel 5-6).