How to Work Cheerfully for the Lord
People don’t quit their jobs; they quit their bosses. As I’ve gotten more seasoned in my career, I’ve become quite familiar with this adage. Horrible bosses will run off good employees faster than anything else. Despite all that, our heavenly Father wants us to work cheerfully—even for our bad bosses.
Colossians 3:23-25 - Work hard and cheerfully at all you do, just as though you were working for the Lord and not merely for your masters, remembering that it is the Lord Christ who is going to pay you, giving you your full portion of all he owns. He is the one you are really working for. And if you don’t do your best for him, he will pay you in a way that you won’t like—for he has no special favorites who can get away with shirking. (TLB)
As you can see, God wants us to be accountable for our actions not for our bosses’ actions. In fact, he doesn’t make any distinction between a good boss or a bad boss. He just simply wants us to work cheerfully for whoever the boss happens to be.
Related Post: Bound by Works or Free in Grace?
Luckily, we don’t have to work for a bad boss if we don’t want to. We are a people who get to live in freedom. Through the Holy Spirit, we can change our circumstances. Below are three of the best ways in which that change can come to fruition.
Prayer for Your Boss
Not only should we be submissive to authority (Titus 3:1-2), we should pray for authority too (1 Timothy 2:1-2). That goes against our American Dream sensibilities, but it’s the truth. Here’s the crazy thing though. If we submit ourselves to pray for our bosses, God may honor our obedience and transform our bad bosses into good bosses. But it might not happen if we don’t ask (Matthew 7:7).
Seek After a New Boss
There’s no law that says we must work for the same boss forever. If our current employer is large enough, we might be able to change departments and therefore change bosses. By doing so, we can improve our ability to work cheerfully. And by working cheerfully, we can be more obedient to our heavenly Father’s commands.
Find a New Employer
It’s very possible that the company you work for is corrupt from top to bottom. That’s unfortunate, but that’s also even more reason for you to leave. Pray for God to send you in the right direction. Pray for God to put you in a position to cheerfully work more than you’ve ever cheerfully worked before.