You will spend most of your waking hours working in one form or another. Does the God of Israel have anything to say about work? Does how you approach work affect your spiritual life? Does you spiritual life affect your approach to work? Or are they separate matters?

Career Advice From Proverbs

Proverbs 6:6-11 the ant is gives us a good example to follow:

The Ant Is Self-Motivated [verse 7]

No one has to tell the any what to do. There is no boss prodding the ant onward. The ant sees what needs to be done and takes care of it. The ants motivation comes from within.

A person with internal motivation makes a valuable employee. A person who constantly needs to be told what to do is:

Less valuable: If a manager constantly needs to watch over an employee to make sure they are doing what needs to get done it’s a drain on their time. An employee can be counted on to take care of what needs doing frees up that manager so they can be somewhere else getting other work done.

Less successful: lack of internal motivation and drive shows there is little potential for advancement. Employers will give more money to employees with drive in order to keep them. Employers will give promotions to employees with drive so they can take on greater responsibilities.

The Ant Prepares For The Future [verse 8]

When the ant sees the opportunity to gather food the ant jumps on it [even if its not hungry at the moment]. The ant stores up for the times when nothing will be there to gather.

Hard Work, Works! [verses 9-10]

To be successful requires hard work. No employer is going to make efforts to reward a worker who is always looking for excuses and ways to get out of the task in from of them. Such people end up poor and not having much.

IMPORTANT: this doesn’t mean that poor people are all lazy people… ie. you’re poor, therefore, you’re lazy. That is a fallacy as much as the idea Job’s afflictions were caused by sin.

Some people are born poor and its not any fault of their own… it could be because of family legacy, or social injustice. However, the way OUT of poverty usually involves hard work and drive. Social programs can help give people opportunity but the way to make those opportunities successful is through hard work and drive.

[verse 11] The consequences of their behavior come upon the lazy person as a surprise… like a bandit, or an armed robber. They were not expecting it. The proverbs have been placed within God’s word so that you may avoid such nasty surprises. God’s word says “you don’t have to learn the hard way, I [God] can tell you the wise way to proceed in life”.

Proverbs 26:16 Some people don’t see the consequences of the approach they are taking. Their way seems perfectly sensible and logical… until the moment it isn’t. Consider Proverbs as God’s advice… from one who knows.

Learn From The Example of Others

Proverbs 24:30-34 try to recognize the cause and effect at play around you. Learn what leads to success and what leads to poverty. The person with the overgrown vineyard and the broken down property probably thinks he’s the smart one for not working… at first, these things don’t seem like such a big deal… then you reach a tipping point when the unattended matters add up so that fixing them isn’t even possible anymore.

You might have a house that needs new shingles to keep out the rain. It's going to cost $5,000. You’ can handle the cost but it will mean you have to put off some fun stuff you had planned. The leak is not in the living area so why bother fixing it. A few years go by and the beams get to rot in them and now the roof needs to be completely replaced and is in danger of caving in… repairs are going to cost $50,000 which you cannot afford!

The Lazy Mindset

The lazy person [sluggard] dreams and talks but never makes it happen

Proverbs 14:23 diligent work is what makes dreams come true… not good intentions

Proverbs 13:4 you have to act on the desire, or the idea, to get the good results

Proverbs 22:13 those who don’t want to work an be very creative in finding excuses

The Diligent Mindset

The Hebrew word translated diligent literally means sharp-pointed. For example, it has teeth. The diligent mindset has initiative, motivation, drive, foresight, and enthusiasm. The lazy person and the diligent may both have wishes and dreams but the diligent is the one who acts… who sinks their teeth into it

Proverbs 12:24 the person who has the diligent mindset is usually the one who gets promoted. Note: maybe you don’t want more responsibility buts its also the diligent person who usually keeps their job, especially when times get tough.

So, if you want to be that person who gets promoted, who gets better and more interesting opportunities, who has greater job security… cultivate the traits of the diligent. How?

Do the best you possibly can in your current position to show you can handle more… and it will come. Don’t be a dreamer who says “if I were put in charge then I‘d be able to show them what I can really do!

[use example of film stripping, art degree, got a job as film stripper, took night courses, was very fast, got bored, asked for side projects to do, got the attention of the plant manager, got promoted to assistant plant manager].

Proverbs 10:4 – get the knowledge you need to get more done

Ecclesiastes 9:10 – work hard at whatever situation you find yourself in

Proverbs 22:29 – who knows where diligence will lead you! [where laziness leads is fairly certain]

Preparation Before Pleasure

Proverbs 24:27 the setting is a farming culture. The field was the main arena of work. From the field, a person got the food they needed to keep alive and all their potential wealth. A nice house to live in was something you could build once the field starting producing food to eat and money to buy building materials. In that setting a house was a place of comfort.

The principle is to get yourself set up with a means to earn a good living before you start enjoy the material goods that go with a good living. When you are just getting started, make do without the finer things of life until you can afford them… like that fancy sports car, or fine furniture.

All This Takes… Self Discipline

Proverbs 25:28 learn to control your impulses, desires, emotions instead of them controlling you. We are asked to imagine a city with its defensive walls broken down [imagine your house with the front door gone]. You don’t feel safe! You no longer have control of what comes into or out of your house!

Career Advice For Followers of Jesus Christ

The work you do in a significant part of your discipleship before God. It is the arena where deep spiritual lessons are learned and put into practice. Your job is not in a separate compartment isolated from your spiritual life and development.

Ephesians 6:5-8 approach your job as if you were working for Jesus Christ. In other words, work knowing that God is watching, and taking account of what you are doing [and not doing] even if the boss isn’t. And what does God want to see?

The advice given in Proverbs was presented as stuff you can do to succeed in life, better your condition, perhaps gain some wealth. Putting the good advice from Proverbs into practice is in your own best interest.

That same advice is also useful for pleasing God. But gaining material wealth or status is not the goal God is interested in… God wants you to become a particular type of person. A useful and profitable servant… a diligent and conscientious member of His family… the royal family of the universe!

Put forth your best effort with all diligence… to be fearful of wronging your employer [and visa versa]… to deal with one another honestly, in a straightforward manner, trustworthy. To work wholeheartedly, with politeness and respect, even cheerful.

Luke 17:7-10 an unprofitable servant just does what he is told. Clearly implies that a profitable servant in God’s eyes is one who goes above and beyond his duty [what the master expects].

Responsibilities of Employees

1 Timothy 6:1 show honor and respect

Luke 16:10-11 Matthew 24:45 faithful, trustworthy and not deceitful

Titus 2:9 patient, and do as asked

1 Peter 2:18-20 even when your employer is unworthy

1 Thessalonians 4:11-2, 2 Thessalonians 3:7 work and don’t be lazy

Responsibilities of Employers

Ephesians 6:8 don’t threaten… using your power of coercion to demand employees do anything illegal [offering bribes to clients, sexual favors, cheat clients]

Safe working conditions Exodus 21:28-29, Deuteronomy 22:8

Not to take advantage of peoples lack of bargaining power with exploitative wages  Proverbs 22:16, Mal 3:5

Don’t hold back the wages but pay on time  Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:14-15

Established rest day must be given  Deuteronomy 5:14-15

Treat employees as if they were a son or daughter  Philemon 16

Fairness – not to give someone more or less for reasons of family, ethnicity, gender

Conclusion:

In times of economic uncertainty…. Financial uncertainty… the best way to gain job security, perhaps even to get ahead is to take this valuable career advice from God’s word. The application of that advice is also a deeply spiritual matter and how you approach work has a lot to do with how God sees you.