I'd rather be paid in praise over a paycheck any day, I texted a friend.
Can you relate, or am I the only high-maintenance girl out there who loves to have all her work noticed and applauded?
I realized how much praise motivates me as I was examining each area of my life with the help of The Personal Vitality Plan. As I wrote down what was going well and what was being neglected in the area of my work, I kept stumbling across words like:
- Motivated
- Passionate
- Wholehearted
- Excited
Except those were words that did not describe the way I felt. I scribbled on the corners of my paper,
I wonder what it would take to get me to a place of looking forward to going into the office each day . . . Is it my problem or theirs that I'm not wholehearted, passionate, excited, and motivated about my job?
My thoughts soon meandered down the path of guilt as I reasoned with myself, Who has time to praise me for every little thing I do? How high-maintenance of me!
But then it hit me.
God's a Father who delights in His adopted children's worship and love of Him.
There's nothing wrong with being motivated by praise—as long as I'm seeking HIS praise. I just tend to look for it in all the wrong places. My employer and coworkers—incredible as they are—are too busy to notice everything I do and to reward me for it.
God's not, though.
Did you know that God is a lavish Rewarder? He loves it when His people go all out for His praise.
Don't misunderstand me. He doesn't love it when we work to earn His approval. But when we know that we already have His approval through Christ, He applauds our effort to please Him! Not because we deserve it; but because He's a Father who delights in His adopted children's worship and love of Him.
No, we won't hear His praise right . . . this . . . second, but we will hear it! Audibly. How I want Him to say something like this to me when we first meet face to face,
"Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master" (Matt. 25:21).
And so, I'm heading into the office with a whole new goal: to be fully pleasing to the Lord in my work.
How about you? Are you feeling unmotivated in your own work, whether it's at the office or at home or somewhere in-between? If so, I'm praying the apostle Paul's prayer for you and for me:
"And so . . . we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col. 1:9–10).
We know His will. Among other things, God's will is that,
"Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ" (Col. 3:23–24).
So how about it? Are you feeling unmotivated? How about working today for God's praise?
What an honor, to work heartily for the One who sweat great drops of blood for us, so that we might one day soon enter into His rest and hear Him exclaim, "Well done!"
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