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I work in finance. Besides having the gifts, opportunity, and desire to do this work, I also feel this is an area God has called me to work in. I really want to be excellent in it. But sometimes—OK, often—it’s hard to lay it down to focus on other priorities, like my family, my church, or my health. How do I know the difference between being diligent at work and making work an idol?
You’re right to be diligent in your work. Whatever we do, Scripture tells us to work at it with all our heart, as if working for the Lord (Col. 3:23–24). But we can easily drift from serving God with our work as worship to serving our work as the god we worship.
If you’re feeling convicted that you’ve made work an idol, pay attention. With the Holy Spirit at work in us, we can ask ourselves questions to identify whether we’re approaching work as a good, purposeful way of glorifying God and loving others or whether we’ve made an idol of it in ways God never intended.
1. Why are you working?
If it’s been a while since you examined your motives for work, now may be a good time. Is your work still about trying to steward the gifts God has given you for his glory and others’ good, or has it become all about your own glory and good?
Are you finding your identity and value in work? Are you idolizing advancement because you’ve anchored your hope in human recognition? Is your paycheck a noble effort to provide for yourself and your family (1 Tim. 5:8), or are you simply toiling to acquire wealth (Prov. 23:4)?
Work has always been (and eternally will be) a good part of God’s design. Our God works. We ourselves are part of his handiwork, and he has prepared good works for us to do in reflection of him (Eph. 2:10). But our work is meant to be about taking up our role in God’s kingdom, not about building our own kingdom.
2. What are you sacrificing for your work?
Work will rightly demand you sacrifice many activities. Leisure, hobbies, and recreation must often fall second to your daily work (although they can have their place in your life) as you prioritize being faithful with all God has entrusted to you (Luke 16:10).
But you also need to ask if you’re sacrificing too much, or sacrificing the wrong things. Have you allowed work to compromise the amount of time, attention, and effort you should be putting into pursuing your relationship with God, investing in your marriage, discipling your kids, or actively participating in your church? Have you sacrificed more rest than God intended, given that he rested on the seventh day of creation as an example (Ex. 20:11)?
God warns us not to wear ourselves out to get rich but rather to be discerning enough to desist (Prov. 23:4)—especially for the sake of honoring all he has called us to outside our work.
3. Do you fear your work more than you fear God?
You were made to fear—not in the sense of being afraid but in the sense of having reverence for someone greater than yourself. You should fear God alone, and you can ask yourself whether you’ve come to fear work as an idol that rivals him.
For example, are you more eager to gain your leaders’ approval of your work or God’s commendation? Do your colleagues’ opinions of you matter more than God’s opinion? Are you more concerned about falling short of your career ambitions or of God’s glory?
He alone directs your steps, holds your future, judges all things rightly, and reigns over earthly leaders and authorities. It’s him you ultimately answer to, and him alone you’re to fear.
4. Does work govern your emotions more than it should?
It’s not wrong to be emotionally affected by your work. It’s often a sign that you care for those with whom, and for whom, you’re laboring. It can also be a sign you’re working with all your heart—a heart that can be moved by the failings, conflicts, inefficiencies, and frustrations you’ll face in an imperfect workplace.
But you’re also called to be steadfast and immovable as you abound in the work of the Lord (1 Cor. 15:58). You should ask if you’ve replaced your God of stability with the tumultuous god of work (Isa. 33:6).
Are you devastated when you don’t get the new role or promotion you felt you deserved? Can the uncertainty of your reputation in the workplace riddle you with anxiety? When you receive correction or critical feedback, does it shake your sense of worth? Does the weightiness of an upcoming project, meeting, or presentation grip you with fear and steal your sleep?
If so, it may be you’re looking to work to provide what only God can. Only the Lord gives unshakable peace amid all that threatens to shake you.
5. Would you leave your work if God asked you?
Although God may be calling you to remain faithful right where you are for the remainder of your career, you’re always wise to ask this question: If he called me to leave, would I obey?
If, through his Word, his wisdom, and godly counsel offered by others, it seemed he was asking you to give up the work you had today, would you do it? Could you trust God and gladly follow where he seemed to be leading you, or would you instead wrap your fist tighter around the god you’ve made of work?
If you, like Abraham with Isaac, would be willing to sacrifice your career on an altar of obedience if God asked you to do so, this may be a sign that you truly love God—far more than your work—as you haven’t withheld even this from him (Gen. 22:12).
Topple the Idol
If your answer to any of these questions brought the conviction that you’ve idolized your work, perhaps what you most need is to look this idol full in the face—its breathless, lifeless face—and acknowledge how powerless it is to save you.
For all the good to be found in and produced by your work, it was never meant to satisfy or rule over you as only the living God can. Just as every idol you read about in Scripture ultimately let its people down, so will any idol you make of work.
Instead, pray for the wisdom and self-control to keep work in its proper place in your life—a gift in which to enjoy him, a tool by which to serve him, and a way in which to reflect him—as you seek to only ever worship your heavenly Master.
News Source : https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-know-idolizing-work/
