May 24, 2021 – “Advice for the Workplace!”

        Reading this question – a request for advice for the Workplace, I shivered with apprehension.  Asking my advice for anything thing, and asking me? Just because I have gray hair, I do not always have advice to share. Someone always has a different idea.

I thought my work history. In each job I learned about the term, ‘work ethic’. We never know these things automatically.  Pleasing your boss by listening, really hearing, and being ready to learn is essential.  Another step is clarification of what is expected, then repeat, clarification. Listen and respond.

Being a worker worthy of his hire is the same in the spiritual realm as in the workplace in the world. When we come to Jesus, truly loving Him, we want to please Him. We read the ‘manual’, the sixty-six books of the Bible. We come as His follower. The Presence of Jesus becomes real.  He walks with me and talks with me and tells me I am His very own.

The choices in how we respond in both areas is a witness for or against our Lord and Savior.  There are nine qualities that become ours from the Holy Spirit when we prepare by learning the two commands Jesus has said are most important.

And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:37-39.

Learning to love as Jesus loves us is a life-long process. The World would have you think working a job is trying to see how little work you can get by with and still get paid.  A game that demeans the word, Work. It is a betrayal of trust of others who depend on that job to be accomplished with energetic enthusiasm and dependability.

What are the nine qualities of life that make us rich in Spirit.  The Gifts of the Holy Spirit is listed here.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23.

These qualities that are gifts through the Holy Spirit creates a great work and enduring joy for those who love God.

  1. Joy – Joy brings the aura of unity and delight wherever you are. Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Psalm 33:1
  2. Love – Love is the kind that forgives cares about the welfare for others. Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to Him and make our home with Him.” John 19:23
  3. Peace – Peace comes when you find joy and love, your heart knows peace deep within yourself. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. John 14:27.
  4. Patience – Patience is the quality of a person who remembers learning anything for the first time. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Romans 8:25-26.
  5. Kindness – Kindness is the evidence of loving others as Jesus loves you.  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Proverbs 21:25.
  6. Goodness – Goodness is treating others as you want to be treated. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.  Titus 3:4-5.
  7. Faithfulness – Faithfulness is being the same person with the same thinking, and never letting feelings control. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23.
  8. Gentleness – Gentleness is holding another person’s heart with love and caring. I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:1-2.
  9.  Self-Control – Self-Control is controlling how we respond to situations and people. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 2 Peter 1:5.

The workplace is where we can place the command of Jesus above all and making it the priority.  A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35.