Too often, I have struggled with the reality that there just seems to be not enough hours in the day to get things done. In some way or another you can most likely empathise with this feeling and may have even felt the same way. Believers are born with burdens as they say and we feel that urge to get things done, but we're just too busy.
We want to help the poor, become better at our jobs, spend more time with our kids, go on more dinner dates with our spouses, volunteer in church ministry and evangelise to the lost, but where do you get all the time to do that?
God calls us to be productive. It was one of His first commandments to mankind. "Be fruitful and increase in number;" God told Adam in Genesis 1:28. "fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." God wasn't just commanding Adam and Eve to make as many babies as they could. He was calling them to productive and fruitful work. He asked Adam to tend the Garden of Eden and to name all animals and livestock. God made Adam work and He's made all of us to work as well, but He never meant for any of us to be overwhelmed with burn out and exhaustion.
But how can we stay productive without being overwhelmed by the busyness that seems to entangle us as we try to do more? The issue really starts when we think that our work from God is all up to us. The gospel makes it clear that it's not.
Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
We were created for good, productive and fruitful work, but created to be able to produce it simply through Jesus Christ and what He has already done for us.
Productivity starts becoming hostile busyness when all the anxiety and stress starts seeping in as we keep convincing ourselves that we have to work to deserve our positions, to get things done, to make sure God's plans will come to pass. We need to come to terms with the reality that God will let His plans happen whether we screw up or not.
So many people start getting fearful and uneasy doing God's work because they think it's so much about who we are. It's not. It's about Jesus, His work and His strength being real even in our weakness. We work not because we need to get things done, but because God has already won the victory for us and now our work simply becomes a means of living that victory out.
