Rest in Your Labor

Do you feel at peace in your work? When you look at your to-do list, do you see an opportunity for God to work? Or does an ever-present sense of failure loom over you before you even begin your day? God has made you with unique gifts and has given you a specific calling to work for his glory in this world. But despite calling you to work, God does not entrust you with the outcome of your work. That is his domain and he is sovereign over it.

So often stress and anxiety come from a deeper need to perform and control outcomes. We need to know that we are significant, that our work is important, that our lives are meaningful. But God asks us to trust him with the outcomes, to be faithful in the work not the results. As the poet John Donne reminds us,

God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best.

Learning to trust God with our work means humbly surrendering to the possibility that it will not be fulfilled in the way we imagine. But learning to trust God with our work also means humbly surrendering to the possibility that it will be fulfilled in ways we cannot imagine. And when we reach this place—when we no longer feel responsible for outcomes—we can rest.

So today, enter into your work with peace. Surrender your efforts to his hand, remembering that he is responsible to establish them. Submit to him and let the weight of performance roll off your shoulders.

Hannah Anderson lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She is the author of Made for More and Humble Roots: How Humility Grounds and Nourishes Your Soul (Moody). You can find more of her writing at sometimesalight.com, hear her on the weekly podcast Persuasion, or follow her on Twitter @sometimesalight.