Work - Part 1

For LG in Sept. I am doing a series on the topic of work and how it impacts us on a daily basis. It has really been fun preparing this and I thought I would share a few of the things God has been teaching me on this subject.
The first thing that we come to is the understanding that work is not a dirty four letter word. In fact it is good and redeeming. In fact work was given to man before the fall so it is not a result of our fallen world. (See Gen 2 and 3) The difficulty of work is a result of the fall. So we were created to be people who work with God and are a part of the creative process. And as a side note which we will get to in the end, we will also be working when the new heavens and earth are formed. The other fact to understand is that God is also a worker. Obviously He worked the six days in His creative sphere, but throughout the Scriptures we see God/Jesus/Holy Spirit working in a variety of ways. John 5:17 says that God is always at work and elsewhere He never sleeps or slumbers. He is variously described as builder, gardener, shepherd, physician, etc.
So we see that work is a part of our very fiber and a necessity and later we will see the purpose and benefits of work. Of course we do not want to get carried away with the modern notion that our job is our identity, nor to denigrate those whose "job" is non paying such as our young mothers. More to come.