Have you ever felt unappreciated at work? Perhaps you’ve found yourself overlooked by your employer, while others who work with you are honored and recognized as employee of the week, month, or year. You’ve worked hard but have received no kudos from your boss. There’s no plaque in your place of employment with your name and picture on it. You may feel like you are working hard for nothing. You may feel overworked and overlooked. You may feel that your employer has treated you unjustly. You may have worked as hard as, or maybe harder than, others in your workplace but have not received the recognition you believe you deserved.
As followers of Christ, we are all called to partner with God in His work. We are called to do the work of God on earth, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, helping the poor and destitute, and showing Jesus to others as we do so. But our work for God is never unappreciated. Hebrews 6:10 tells us that God is not unjust to those who work for Him. In the NLT, this verse reads:
For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.
The work that we have done for God does not go unrecognized. God never forgets how hard we have worked. He never forgets how we have shown our love for Him by loving each other, by caring for those around us. Our earthly reward for doing His work is knowing that He is pleased and knowing that we have been the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. But someday, He will reward us in heaven for the things we do for Him on earth.
In the eyes of God, the acts of kindness and caring that we do for His people are done for God Himself and, as such, they will be rewarded. On the day of judgment, God will look at those of us who have worked hard for Him, who have cared for others, and He will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.” (Matthew 25:34–36, NLT). And if we ask when we did these things, He will tell us that whenever we did these things to the least of His people, we did them to Him.
When we follow Christ, when we have received the salvation that comes from faith in Jesus, our response should be to work hard for His kingdom here on earth so that, one day, we will hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And that’s a recognition that far outweighs Employee of the Month!
A Worshiper's Journal 