Satan has many strategies to make us lose sight of what is truly important by bombarding us with the ‘immediacy’ and the demands of the world of work. Too many of us are so busy striving for that next promotion, trying to make the right ‘connections’, or simply trying to cope with huge mountains of work, that we forget the basic principle: that the only way we will ever be truly successful in Babylon and fulfil God’s purpose in the earth (that’s what we are here for!) is to put the Lord and His agenda first, whatever the natural circumstances may be.
The Pains
1. Roadrunning: The “rat race” seems to begin in the university. There seems to be the 'spirit of Pharaoh' at work there. We know, the whole 'making bricks without straw' technique. In a nutshell, there is a demand to produce more and more excellent work without any extra resources. Consequently, many people become "roadrunners" always running here and there...group meetings, assignments, transferring courses ….. not recognising the essential futility in the enterprise well enough to come to terms with the situation and strategically plan for success.
2. Crashing! Have you noticed that the work never ends? The later we work, the harder we work, the quicker our desk gets filled again and then we crash. The reality is, crashing is not fun! We get to a place of extreme frustration where nothing works and we are forced to stop.
3. Deflated Spiritual Life: Some live in the office, often to the detriment of their spiritual life because it causes them to forsake assembling with the believers. Whilst it is productive at one end, it is bad at the other end because success is achieved at the expense of their salvation and relationship with God. It is so easy to get caught up in work because of a desire to impress bosses, to be a major contributor to the continued success of the company and to be "somebody," that we become entangled in a web of deceit.
Daniel’s Technology
God has placed the detailed accounts of Daniel’s life in Babylon in the scriptures to show us what our attitude must be in the midst of Babylon.
1. Accurate Spiritual Position: Daniel was, undisputedly, as successful in the secular environment of his day as he possibly could have been. However, it is clear from his writings that Daniel did not place any undue emphasis on his worldly success. His success was simply a by-product of his accurate position in God.
2. Community as Priority: In modern times, Daniel’s refusal to eat the king’s meat could be equated to our refusal to compromise our standards, simply to be popular with work colleagues. His faithful and regular prayer life before during and after the king’s edict was an act of faith in God and defiance against the devil, as is ours sometimes when we pack up our things at 4:30pm and walk boldly out of our office to assemble with the believers. Daniel's close friendship with Shadrach, Mesach and Abednego can be compared to our conscious effort to build community by taking time to interact with fellow saints. This sacrifice is clearly seen in Matt. 16:25-26:
'For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake shall find it. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul…?’
3. God 1st = Success: The important thing to note about Daniel’s life is that, despite the fact that his heart remained in Jerusalem i.e. God’s kingdom, and despite the fact that placing the Lord first often brought him into direct conflict with Babylon, he still managed to far surpass the Babylonians.
What does this account teach us?
The Lord does desire that we succeed in our jobs, and outshine the unsaved in every arena. Giving Him top priority in our lives will do nothing but benefit us in all areas of life: Mal. 3:10 ‘ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test me now in this . . .if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.’ This scripture is not necessarily limited to money, but can be applied to anything we have offer to God - that is, our time, or our talents. In order to get the Lord’s best in every sphere of our lives, we must give the best of all we have to Him. How many of us can say we honestly do?
Freedom from the Trap
1. Plan strategically: Start by thinking about the type of organisation you want to be a part of and work toward getting there. And remember, there is value in hard work but what we resist is Babylon's dominion through overwork. A lot of the times what we actually need to do is work smarter during the day, so that we don't spend more hours doing stuff that could have been done within the normal work hours. There are the jobs that require 14 hours day and there are other jobs that require 8 hours day. Some people may be required by God to work 14 hour days…if but for a season. On the other hand, maybe some of us may need to make sacrifices i.e. lower salary for more hours to dedicate to community building and most importantly, our relationship with the Lord.
2. Leisure is a Must! The reality is though, for our own good health (spiritual, emotional, physical), we have to take time out for leisure. Very important is time spent just for you, doing things you like. This is not self-indulgence; this is part of fostering a healthy internal environment; that does not only come by praying in tongues for an hour. We also need time to interact with others. I think that we should all be smarter by taking time to hang-out, to pray, to build the community, 'time-to-smell-the-roses' breaks; these are essential. Our lives are more balanced that way and God can do more with us.
3. Intimacy with God: We must always seek the Lord first in these situations and strive to maintain balance. There is a time to put in the extra hours; sometimes striving for a promotion may be just what the Lord has for us at this time. Anyone who is considering being a serious professional should realise that there are hours to be put in and if you were to ask anyone who, for example, owns his/her own business, packing your bags at 4:30pm all the time simply would not cut it.
The key to averting the cleverly set ‘career trap’ is a close relationship with the Lord so that in ALL that we do, we are in the middle of HIS divine purpose for OUR lives. In other words, one day we may be required to work the extra hours, another day it may be just fine to leave at 4:30pm. If we keep tuned in to His requirements we will find the balance.