Weekly Devotional: Working for the Lord

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23)

People come to college for different reasons. Some people genuinely come to learn, but many come because their parents or society pressured them to. Many students are just trying to graduate and get out. Our culture often expects high schoolers to graduate and go straight to college to get a degree in anything, as long as it is something. Perhaps you felt God calling you to a degree and now you’re stressed, in debt and wondering why any of it even matters.

When you feel bogged down with work, feeling like you’re doing everything to please your parents, society or even yourself, stop. Nothing you do in this life is for pleasing anyone here. The fruits of your labor on this earth are for God and God alone. Every action you do should be to bring glory to God.

Imagine how differently you would approach your schoolwork if you weren’t working to please an insatiable societal standard. What if your efforts and late nights studying were to glorify God?

This is not to say that God wants you to be stressed and overwork yourself, but rather to change your mindset from one of bringing glory to yourself to bringing glory to God. This also doesn’t mean that all the work you do has to be Christian-centered. God is the center of all things, even the things that seem separate.

Sometimes we have a tendency to put God in a box, separate from other aspects of life like school. This doesn’t have to be the case. God created all things and controls all things, so therefore He is involved in all things. When we are doing calculus homework, we are working for God. When we are doing lab reports, we are doing them for the glory of God. He gave us life so we could do these things and so we could be prepared to go into the world and serve Him in all disciplines and fields.

Just because you aren’t going to school to be a pastor doesn’t mean you aren’t preparing to serve God. Everything you do and say in life should point to God, and that includes your college coursework.

So as you go about your busy life this week, be sure to point the world to God and work for the Lord, not for men.

Grand Canyon University is committed to working for the Lord. If you would like to learn more about GCU’s Christian identity and heritage or would like to read more devotionals please visit our website and check out the GCU Blog.