Workday Prayers: Offer Your Work as a Gift to God
Scripture Reading: Psalm 76:11-12 (NRSV)
Make vows to the LORD your God, and perform them;
let all who are around him bring gifts
to the one who is awesome,
who cuts off the spirit of princes,
who inspires fear in the kings of the earth.
Prelude
God the worker made us to work (Genesis 1:1-28). Work is more than a way to support ourselves and our families. It’s not just something we do during the “secular” week. Rather, from a biblical point of view, work is a way we offer worship to God. As it says in Romans 12:1, we are to present our bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” One of the main places for this body-presenting-worship is in our daily work.
Focus
One of the gifts we can offer the Lord is our daily work. When we work in response to God’s creation and command, when we labor for God’s purposes and glory, then our work is worship.
Prayer
Gracious God, today I offer my work to you as a gift of worship. It’s not that I’ll necessarily be doing anything different from usual. But it’s more a matter of my heart, my desire to serve and glorify you through my work.
Thank you, Lord, for making me as a worker. Thank you for allowing me to participate in your work in the world. Thank you for the rewards of work, for income, for meaning, for relationships, for the chance to make a difference in the world.
I know, gracious God, that this world is not just the way you made it. Sin has broken your good world, and that means work is not what you intended. But the original goodness of work is still there, under the surface.
May what I do with my hands today be pleasing to you. May what I say with my mouth honor you. May what I think with my mind and desire with my heart as I work be gifts of worship to you. Be glorified, Lord, in all of my work today. Amen.
Ponder Throughout the Day
Offer your work to God as worship.
For Further Reflection
You may wish to read all of Psalm 76:1-12.
You may also find helpful an article I wrote called “Your Work as Worship: Looking Through the Lens of Ephesians.”
Finally, if you’re a pastor or a worship leader, I’d recommend a wonderful book by my Fuller and De Pree Center colleague, Dr. Matthew Kaemingk: Work and Worship: Reconnecting Our Labor and Liturgy.
Find all Life for Leaders devotions here. Explore what the Bible has to say about work at the unique website of our partners, the Theology of Work Project. Commentary on today’s Life for Leaders theme can be found here: Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Minds (Romans 12:1–3)
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Mark D. Roberts
Senior Strategist
Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a Senior Strategist for Fuller’s Max De Pree Center for Leadership, where he focuses on the spiritual development and thriving of leaders. He is the principal writer of the daily devotional, Life for Leaders,...