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I don’t think we want to compartmentalize our faith, but often we do. We don’t try to be Sunday Christians, but the label sometimes fits. It can be a struggle to connect our faith with the rest of our week. When you’re cleaning up after your kids or facing a deadline at work, does it matter that you’re a Christian? Is there a Christian way to approach architecture, sales, or manufacturing? Should there be something distinctive about a Christian’s shopping, free time, or sleep schedule? I’d like to suggest three biblical principles that can help you take your faith 24/7.
1. Let God be your motivation
Why you do what you do matters. In 1 Peter 2:19, Peter calls it “a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” Other translations use the word commendable. Obviously, there’s nothing particularly noble about suffering in itself. It’s not virtuous to be treated unfairly if you’re miserable about it. But the verse is saying that when you choose to endure unjust suffering because you’re “mindful of God,” it becomes an act of grace. The same is true of everything we do. That’s what’s behind the great promise of Proverbs 3:6 where it says: “In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Acknowledging God in everything means seeing all that you do in light of Him and His will. It means making Him your motivation and letting your awe and gratefulness toward God energize your actions. I remember walking home from kindergarten and picking some ‘flowers’ for my mother. They were just weeds, but she carefully put them in water and displayed them like I had brought home an exotic bouquet. Motivation matters. Being “mindful of God” changes the way you treat a difficult client or perform a monotonous task. It affects how you see your coworkers, treat your family, and manage your free time.
2. Do everything in love
The second principle sounds like a Hallmark card. Do everything in love sounds like something you’d see cross-stitched on a doily. But it comes in one of the most macho passages in all of Scripture. In 1 Corinthians 16:13, Paul says: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” Being watchful pictures a military lookout or prison guard. Standing firm takes courage. Being strong is all about power. Then the next verse says: “Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). Obviously, Paul isn’t being sentimental. What does it mean to do everything in love? He’s talking about love as self-sacrifice, love as service, love as an action. Matt Perman puts it like this:
To have love as the guiding principle of our lives means that our continual mindset in all we do should be “What will serve the other person?” It is not “What will serve me?” but “What will serve them?” The guiding mindset of our lives is to be: how can I do good for others? How can I benefit my neighbour?
Would it change the way you work if you saw your responsibilities as opportunities to serve individuals and society as a whole rather than merely earning a paycheque or living for the weekend? Would a focus on love help you see those you live and work with as people with needs rather than tools to accomplish your goals?
3. Make good works out of the ordinary
We tend to limit our view of good works to the special and extraordinary things of life. We think that a mission trip counts for God but aren’t so quick to see the virtue in less flashy acts of grace. The Bible presents good works differently. For example, 1 Timothy 5:10 speaks of someone with “a reputation for good works” and gives examples of those good works: raising children, hospitality, and caring for those who are sick. Simple acts become powerful ones when we do them in faith. Matt Perman says it well:
According to the Scriptures, good works are not simply the rare, special, extraordinary, or super spiritual things we do. Rather, they are anything we do in faith. … you just need to go about all the things you already do – but do them in faith. That is for the glory of God and the good of others.
The only thing that I would add to Perman’s description is to add the actual planning of your day to the things you do in faith. Let God set the agenda for your day, and then let His love motivate your own as you seek to glorify Him in the ordinary, mundane matters of life.
In awe of Him,
Paul
P.S. For more help in taking your faith 24/7, see Matt Perman’s excellent book, “What's Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done.”
