I grew up with a loving father who provided for me. Sometimes, though, he’d ask me to work for something.

For example, he gave me a lawn-mowing job in high school. He paid me to take care of the lawn at his office building. He wasn’t going to do that work. That was my job, not his.

What in your life are you waiting for God to change? How much of it is your responsibility?

Sometimes we see the work that God has called us to do as something we want God to do. But there are things in your life that God isn’t going to do for you. He wants you to do them. In Exodus 32:7 God told Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.” God had something for Moses to do.

My dad also loaned me his shiny, blue Oldsmobile when I was in high school to take out my girlfriend (now my wife) on our first date. It was my job to put gas in it, clean it, and treat it well. But it wasn’t my car; I didn’t provide for the insurance or make car payments. 

So even when you’re at work doing what’s yours to do, God’s blessings are in it and on it.

Thank you, God, for valuing our contributions to this world and for calling us to work, but never leaving us alone!