Work and Rest- A Short Devotional

“Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain”. (Corinthians:15:58)

No matter what our job, we are all working for the Lord, not just those in official Christian ministries. So, I try to pour out all I can into my work and to give even more of myself to God at the same time. No matter what I do, when I am united with Christ, I am helping to build His Church on earth Nothing I do is in vain, everything I do can bear fruit in my life.

Then when I have time off, I feel that it is well earned, not a right but a reward. When I earn a rest, I have a feeling of accomplishment; my time off is not given to me automatically as if I am entitled to it. It sometimes can be hard to put in the extra effort to do something well, rather than just doing the minimum. This principle can be applied not only to our jobs but to exercise or even reading a book; we should always push forth with just a little more effort, especially giving extra time to God in prayer.

Work and Rest

When it comes to work and downtime, do you ever ponder the following questions? How much time do we waste doing unnecessary habits by surfing the internet, watching the television, playing with our phones as compared to sitting quietly and reading a good book or spending time with the family?. Of course, we are not robots and we do need time to relax and decompress but with that how much time do many of us waste procrastinating? Just remember what St. Paul said to the Corinthians 

“Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain”. (Corinthians:15:58)

Sometimes, we may even get overwhelmed and fall into the trap of thinking that there isn’t enough time in the day. It is true, we can’t add more time, but we can manage it. In which, there are those times even we may think “I can’t wait until tomorrow gets here.” We just need to understand what is really important and prioritize our time; it all starts from when we wake up to the point of when we rest our head.

And, then, there are times at which we may spend waiting, attempting to be patient, examples of waiting on an appointment for a doctor or a supervisor to beginning the meeting or even the most common, waiting in traffic. I think this waiting period develops character and forces us to be patient, even though some of us may even be impatient. However, we can even wait in the Lord. 

Let us work, rest and even wait, always united to God in prayer.