By Katy Mariotti

You Are Serving the Lord Christ

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“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.”
Colossians 3:23-24 English Standard Version

I have never been a person one would consider “neat.” Messes bug me a little, but they don’t bother me as much as they bother some people. Yes, I like it when things are clean and organized, but I also hate cleaning, so maybe I just dislike cleaning more than I like things being neat? And with two kids, all bets are off. When I do clean, it almost immediately becomes a mess again by the two small tornadoes that live in my house.

Physical work just isn’t my thing. But intellectual work? The work of being kind to others? That is the kind of work I enjoy and that I feel like I excel at. I always appreciated the Bible story of Mary and Martha because I’m definitely more of a Mary, sitting and listening at Jesus’ feet, than a Martha, running around making preparations.

But the truth is that work comes in many forms and it can all be necessary and good. During a recent snowstorm in which Colorado got several feet of snow, my husband was out of town. So it was my job to do the shoveling. My kids wanted to know WHY I needed to shovel, so I explained that if I didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to leave our house once the snow stopped. They seemed to understand, and the next day when the snow was finally over, my daughter (who is eight) informed me that she was heading out to shovel: we had a play date later that day and she wanted to make sure we could get out to attend it!

God made us for work, as it says in the Bible:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10

My prayer today is that whatever kind of work it is, God would show us the work we are meant to do, and that we will do it joyfully and heartily, knowing that we are serving the Lord!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado