HEARTS AFLAME: DIVINE PRESENCE AT WORK
My Work is My Worship
By MELVYN MAK
The Hebrew word for worship and work is from the same root word – Avodah and appears in the Bible at least 1,214 times, as a noun or verb or in substantive forms. This is to show that there is no distinction between work and worship before the eyes of God, and can thus be summed up as ‘my work is my worship’. In fact, a better translation of the word Avodah is ‘service’ – this is to say that you serve God while worshipping him in church, and you serve Him at your workplace through giving your best at work. Avodah is thus a picture of an integrated faith.
Our understanding of worship today is often narrowed down to our weekend church experience, in particular when we sing and dance to music, when in actual fact everything about life is worship. When we understand this, everything about our lives change – If at work we don’t show excellence but try to cheat, cut corners and do things that are unwholesome or illegal, it speaks about our standard of worship unto God. These decisions at work, five to six days a week, are much more important than the two hours spent in church on a weekend.
In fact, the first time worship (bow down; prostrate oneself) was mentioned in the Bible was in the book of Genesis, where Abraham was about to bring his son Isaac up to Mount Moriah for sacrifice and then he told his servant ‘stay here while we go up there to worship’. There was definitely no music nor sound system, nor big congregation coming together at the top of the mountain for worship as we often think of it today. Abraham’s worship was a simple obedience to what God has called him to do.
Genesis 22:4-5 puts it this way – ‘On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
A.W Tozer wrote in our on his classics – There is no divide between the sacred and the secular. All of life is sacred. It is not what you do that counts; it’s why you do that counts, because the motivation of our hearts is everything!
Thus, our lives need to be integrative and holistic.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR :
MELVYN MAK spent 18 years as a banker and stockbroker and another 18 years as a pastor. He is now both a pastor and a social entrepreneur. Melvyn is Chairman of TBN Asia.
SCGM 40TH ANNIVERSARY DEVOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
40 FRiends of SCGM have been invited to take part in our 40-Day Devotional Project to help raise funds for SCGM’s 40th Anniversary. Each day starting 20 November 2020 to 31 December 2020, SCGM will publish one devotion written by our 40 FRiends in our FundRaising effort and celebration of God’s goodness and provision over the last 40 years!
Through their devotional reflections, we pray that our FRiends of SCGM40 will bless and encourage many to reflect upon God’s Presence, Protection, Provision, Purification and Power in Missions.
