Who’s Job is it Anyway?

     Did you know that the mind loves patterns?  The Bible is full of ways or themes that help us see God’s big picture for our lives.

     One of the most significant patterns in the Bible teaches us about God’s role and our role as we “work out our salvation” (Philippians 2:12).  As we grow, confusion about who is to do what job can create heavy burdens God never intended for us to carry.

God is the Provider for us

    In Genesis, four big ideas surface quickly about God’s job and our job.  The first pattern shows God as the Source and the Provider for Adam and Eve and all those who descend from them.  Adam and Eve’s job was to depend on God as the source. When we apply the hard lesson they learned to our own lives, we must not only be dependent on God as the source but against our default setting of self-sufficiency.  Our job is to recognize how limited we are and then turn to God and godly others to help us live a life that really works.  When we face the fact that we need both God and Christ-like mentors, we find a truth that frees us from the slavery and futility of trying to be the source of life for ourselves and others.

God is in control and we need to yield control to Him

    The second idea stitching Scriptures together is that God’s job is to be in control, and our job is to yield to God’s control of the world and ourselves. Adam and Eve learned this hard lesson when they decided to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They wanted to take control of their future rather than trusting God. Can you remember times when you tried to control everything, and everyone then found you had lost control of yourself? I can! When we push God off the throne to try to manage the big picture, we lose sight of ourselves and our responsibilities, leaking all kinds of destruction and dysfunction everywhere we go.

We get to experience the life that God has provided us, and God is the judge of that life.

    The third pattern in the Bible’s grand tapestry is the idea that God is the Judge of Life, and our job is to experience life. When Adam and Eve tried to take on God’s role, they could no longer experience the life God had designed for them. When we become judges, we can quickly become obsessed with the question, “Am I good enough?” Life can become a numbers game in which we incessantly rate ourselves and others on a scale God never meant for us to use.

God is the rule maker and as children of God, we must obey.

    The fourth big idea is that God made the rules; we are to obey them. When Eve listened to the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit, she disobeyed God’s laws. Since that happened, some severe consequences have lasted even to this day. Do you have some of God’s rules you would like to re-write? God’s mandates or guardrails were designed to protect us from death and destruction and to guide us to discover the wisdom that breathes life, fulfillment, and joy into the jobs we do.  Constantly redesigning life and making new rules is a form of slavery from which Jesus came to set us free.

     Doing God’s job is exhausting!  Relaxing into our God-given role will restore us to the restful, life-giving, loving design God created for us before Adam and Eve took a dreadful tumble trying to become “like God.” Will you let God be the boss and restore you to the job He created you to do?

Prayer:

Abba, my Daddy-God, I need Your help, or I will become self-sufficient, controlling, and judgmental.  I confess that I had written my own rules for life and became angry and disappointed when others didn’t follow them.  Help me surrender to You as the source of my life.  Help me connect to safe others. Holy Spirit, I need Your energy and Your coaching to help me return to the role God created for me.  Please give me Your fruit of self-control as I give up trying to do Your job and learn to do my own.  I want to do life Your way, Lord.  Thank you so much for being so patient with me.  Amen.

Bible Verses for Additional Study:

Philippians 3:12-14

Titus 2:14

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Romans 8:39