“Basically, before God began His work, the earth was uninhabitable.”

A thought by Charles R. Swindall, from his book, What if…God Has Other Plans?: Finding Hope When Life Throws You the Unexpected (p. 178). Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

Now there is some misinformation out there about God's view of work.

Charles says, “As Scripture opens, God is at work in Creation, creating the world and everything in it. In fact, He had His work cut out for Him, since the Bible declares, ‘The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters’ (Genesis 1:2). Basically, before God began His work, the earth was uninhabitable. No life could exist in such a realm. So He went to work, creating light and separating light from darkness, separating water from land, creating sky, shorelines, and wide-open plains, which the Bible calls ‘dry ground’ (see Genesis 1:3-10).

“Genesis 2 opens with a summary statement on God’s creative work. It’s here we find the original foundation for a theology of work: ‘On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work.’ (Genesis 2:2).

Charles says, “I’m so glad the text reads that way. Under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, Moses was led to write the word work and connect it with Creation. If work is evil, God’s doing what’s evil, which is impossible, because He is holy. Since everything God does is inherently good, then work is good.

“In fact, God explicitly states that work is good. Scripture declares, ‘God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was very good!’ (Genesis 1:31). Again: ‘God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation’ (Genesis 2:3). When God evaluated His work, He considered it of great value and declared the end of it to be a holy accomplishment. That helps us establish our theology of work.”

Charles later says, “Work had intrinsic value and was made holy by God. However, when sin entered the scene, work became arduous and unrelenting. Keep in mind that work became that way because of sin, not because work itself is evil. That’s an important distinction!

“Whatever your work, it is, in fact, your God-given calling. When you start there, it will make all the difference in the way you spend a good bit of your life.”

Earlier he said, “You need to understand how valuable your position is even if it has nothing to do with what’s usually connected to the spiritual realm.”

Remember, God has a wonderful plan for your life and work is a major part of that plan even if it has nothing to do with what’s usually connected to the spiritual realm.  So, let’s seek out His plan for our work.  Would you do that?

Yes, yes!