How hard does God want me to work?

[Blaise N]

Hi everyone,


I yet again am racked with anxiety,not as much but it’s a question and advice request.

So I’m sure you all are aware that the Bible commends hard work.I admit on my part I struggle with laziness(around the house,not my job) and sometimes I’m just exhausted from so much stress and anxiety from my ocd,and it’s crippling to think of the future with hard work at those times.

But I’m worried to only be a useful effective worker for the Lord I have to be a minister or preacher,or be a missionary or constantly work in ministry to be a biblical worker.To me early on I was interested in being a biblical apologist or professor but I now want more to be a orchard farmer,I’m worried that God would/will want me to do a job I don’t like and/or want to make him happy.Not to say I’m not willing to sacrifice to make him happy,I’m fully committed to do that at any moment,I’m saying that I’d have to work a job I don’t like to be of any good use.

 

[Sabertooth]

Have you asked your pastor this?

 

[timothyu]

Don't let the world influence your decisions. The world likes to tell you how to act, but the world is contrary to the ways of the Kingdom. There is worldly Christianity and there is Kingdom Christianity just like there were worldly Jews contrary to those of the Kingdom. Consider that our prime duty is to seek God constantly all through our life. There is no point we can stop for there is always something to learn or that He will show us, no matter our disposition or our occupation. Seek the instruction of God in these matters, be leery in that of fellow man and their theology for discernment is needed in their influence but not His. In the process you may find within your particular character the best way to serve Him, yes even tending orchards where IMO worldly interference will definitely be less.

 

[Blaise N]

Have you asked your pastor this?

No

 

[Hazelelponi]

No

God gifts you for the job He wants you to have.

If your gifts are simple, then God desires you to do the simple things. While the Bible speaks of the apostles, focus on those who were behind the scenes.

Christianity spread through word of mouth. Someone heard Paul preach and was saved and he told all he knew about Paul's preaching. He didn't start preaching, he just told a few people who told a few people. All perfectly ordinary people with ordinary lives.

That's the faith. You are a product of what God put in motion and if you're equipped to run an orchard then an orchard you will run.. and you will do that to the Glory of God in a quiet and simple way. If you tell a few about your faith then yay! Maybe one will be saved, or maybe one will go and listen to the preacher teach something important for their lives.

As much as life changes after becoming Christian, it also stays the same. You're still here, your still you with whatever challenges or gifts that brings. Whatever you do, do it to the Glory of God. Even if it's just running an honest and respectable Christian-owned business or work a menial job and not much more.

God didn't make you a robot, your allowed rest when you need.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Hi everyone,


I yet again am racked with anxiety,not as much but it’s a question and advice request.

So I’m sure you all are aware that the Bible commends hard work.I admit on my part I struggle with laziness(around the house,not my job) and sometimes I’m just exhausted from so much stress and anxiety from my ocd,and it’s crippling to think of the future with hard work at those times.

But I’m worried to only be a useful effective worker for the Lord I have to be a minister or preacher,or be a missionary or constantly work in ministry to be a biblical worker.To me early on I was interested in being a biblical apologist or professor but I now want more to be a orchard farmer,I’m worried that God would/will want me to do a job I don’t like and/or want to make him happy.Not to say I’m not willing to sacrifice to make him happy,I’m fully committed to do that at any moment,I’m saying that I’d have to work a job I don’t like to be of any good use.

Who are you to say what is of good use for God?

 

[Tolworth John]

I’m worried to only be a useful effective worker for the Lord I have to be a minister or preacher,or be a missionary or constantly work in ministry to be a biblical worker.

Not true.
Have you read Acts 8:
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Philip in Samaria
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.'
Who preached the word, not the Apostles but the ordinary people, those like you, talked, gossipped about Jesus.

What is your role in life?

To get a job and support your self/family, to give generously to charity, to live daily for Jesus and to always be ready to give a reason for your belief/hope.

 

[Blaise N]

Who are you to say what is of good use for God?

Well I retain much Old Testament knowledge and can accurately explain the law,creation,and how those take into affect in the New Testament.In the New Testament I can listen to the parables and accurately ask questions and obey them.

 

[timf]

God does not necessarily depend on us going out and doing things. However, we can be ready for whatever he brings across our path;

1Pe 3:15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:

You may also consider the Thessalonians some of whom were negligent to do their daily work.

2Th 3:11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
2Th 3:12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.

There is nothing wrong with daily work. Consider what Jesus said;

Luk 19:13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Well I retain much Old Testament knowledge and can accurately explain the law,creation,and how those take into affect in the New Testament.In the New Testament I can listen to the parables and accurately ask questions and obey them.

My point is not that you are incapable of reason and use in these things, but that you are merely human, and nowhere near "capable" of God's level of reason and use. You may have some idea of what would be more useful to God, and maybe you are of the persuasion that it is right to seek out what God would have you do with your life, but regardless, you cannot know what God has in mind to use you to actually do. For example, my daughter was once convinced her calling was to foreign missions. She rejected a marriage proposal of a man she loved, (and whom, and whose family, I loved) on this basis, because he was convinced his calling was to teaching and correcting and preaching to the American Church. Her life has been a series of disasters ever since, until now she no longer even recognizes the authority of the Scriptures, and mostly just tries to keep her head above water (and never did go to the mission field).

God can use you and your remarkable heart as an orchard farmer just as effectively and easily as he can use you as a pastor/preacher. Also, some day, you may find that an orchard farmer can also be an apologist, or a preacher. One of my blood brothers was for years both a successful building contractor (and a strong witness to the Lord in that role, particularly to the Latin Americans he hired and taught the trade, since he knows and loves them and speaks Spanish) and a pastor, until his retirement from both. (At this point, though rather old, relatively, he still teaches Bible University-level classes and serves on several boards of one organization or other (and serves formally also as a business consultant and building consultant).)

But keep in mind that what God has in mind for you may not even be what would most effectively advance the Gospel as such, but what would accomplish his plans for humanity and his plans concerning you and yours, and those with whom you will come into contact. We are not privy to the details he has in mind. He uses all things.

 

[aiki]

Hi everyone,


I yet again am racked with anxiety,not as much but it’s a question and advice request.

So I’m sure you all are aware that the Bible commends hard work.I admit on my part I struggle with laziness(around the house,not my job) and sometimes I’m just exhausted from so much stress and anxiety from my ocd,and it’s crippling to think of the future with hard work at those times.

But I’m worried to only be a useful effective worker for the Lord I have to be a minister or preacher,or be a missionary or constantly work in ministry to be a biblical worker.To me early on I was interested in being a biblical apologist or professor but I now want more to be a orchard farmer,I’m worried that God would/will want me to do a job I don’t like and/or want to make him happy.Not to say I’m not willing to sacrifice to make him happy,I’m fully committed to do that at any moment,I’m saying that I’d have to work a job I don’t like to be of any good use.

You are "racked with anxiety" against the clear command of God's word, Blaise.

1 Peter 5:6-7
6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
7 Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.

Philippians 4:6-7
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

None of the above verses are given in the form of a suggestion. You aren't to massage your worries and fears, you aren't to habituate yourself to anxiety, if you are God's child. Instead, you are to "cast all your care (anxieties) upon God," you are to be "anxious for nothing." Every time you indulge in anxiety, every time you worry and obsess about some fearful prospect, you disobey God and you declare that He does not love you, that He does not care about you deeply, and that He hasn't the power to keep you, and supply for you, and protect you, as He has promised to do. The result is that God grows distant in your thinking, small and impotent, and joyful, peaceful fellowship with Him is halted. He will never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5-6), His word promises, but enjoying Him is impossible while you encourage anxiety within yourself.

Modern psychology wants to tell us we are victims, that we have "mental diseases" for which we are not responsible and over which we have no power. In the matter of fear, however, God's word says something quite different to us.

1 John 4:18-19
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
19 We love, because He first loved us.

2 Timothy 1:7
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.

Isaiah 26:3-4
3 You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you: because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

You are fearful and obsessive because you have chosen to be. At this point, however, being so much in the habit of anxiety, the only way you'll get free of your OCD is to give over control of your thinking, of yourself, to God. Stop massaging your anxieties; instead, when you begin to grow fearful, yield yourself to God and recognize that every time you move toward anxiety you are moving out from under His control. He would have you in "perfect peace" if you would make a practice of fixing your mind upon Him and consciously, willfully placing yourself under Him in humble submission. The peace will not appear in an instant, of course; it took time for you to become so fearful, to become habituated to anxiety, and it will take time for God to bring you into a new habit of thinking and behaving centered upon Him. But He will not do so unless and until you make a new habit of staying under His control.

This is, really, the battle that you're losing every time you yield yourself to anxiety: Self vs. God. Whenever you are on the throne of your heart, you build on the habit of fear you've established, which is the very opposite of what God will do were He seated on the throne. Every moment of fearful obsessiveness you choose declares that you have pushed God from the throne and are seated there in His place. You aren't the helpless victim of a mental disorder but merely reaping the harvest of fleshly, Self-ruled living that you've chosen - and continue to choose - that God says always in some way produces corruption, sin and death.

Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,
7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,
8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

If your mind isn't set on God, resting in Him, it is set on the flesh and you are, therefore, unable to please Him.

Galatians 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption...

When you are running the show, it is always from the flesh that you do so. And from the flesh, God promises corruption is always, in some way, produced. In your case, anxiety (among other things, I'm sure) is part of the "harvest of corruption."

You can't make good decisions from a mind crowded with anxiety. Certainly, you can't expect God to guide your mind when it isn't yielded to Him. In any case, when God moves you to act in service to Him, He will alter your desires so that you want what He wants. Do you honestly believe that God is going to put you in service to Himself totally against your will and desire? What sort of a servant would you make in such a condition? A pretty horrible one, I'd think. God will put you out of your "comfort zone," at times, to grow you, but never will He employ you in service to Himself while you are hating every moment of that service. We follow our desires, ultimately, which is why God promises to give us both the desire and the ability to do His will.

Philippians 2:13
13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.