The importance of being rooted in God’s Word as a Marketplace Minister
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
Isaiah 40:8
This verse has enchanted me ever since I was young. The grass and flowers: part of God’s awesome Creation, things that we appreciate for their beauty but equally we take for granted, even they fail.
But, we can choose to root ourselves in something that is everlasting, that which will challenge us, grow us and never fail us: God’s Word.
In my role as a Marketplace Minister, all I do begins with my foundation in scripture. It has to be, because what I am called to do, I cannot do with my own strength and understanding. For transformation that begins in the workplace, one of the paradigms we focus on is that:
“Our primary call is not to build the Church but to take the kingdom of God where the kingdom of darkness is still entrenched in order for Jesus to build His Church”.
What that looks like in my work day-to-day is carrying the light, love and joy of Jesus wherever I go. For me, it begins in a foundation in God’s word, soaking myself in what is good.
“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the riches of fare.”
Isaiah 55:2
When I listen to God, in prayer and bible study, His Word sinks deeper into the essence of my thinking. My actions and reactions reflecting His goodness is what I strive for, and the more I listen and talk to God, the more I am able to be more like Him. In any successful job, the goal is to grow and change, to learn processes to ultimately improve them. To innovate and impact for good. As a marketplace minister, I want my every habit to begin in the Word, through what God speaks. As a Christian I don’t ever want to remain the same, but for my mind and spirit to be continually renewed.
“The person with the Spirit makes judgements about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgements, for ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ”.
1 Corinthians 2:15-16
You can’t hear and learn if you’re not listening, so in order to reflect God in my work, I make a specific effort to focus in on what He is saying, whether throughout the day in prayer or whilst I’m reading the Word.
“Jesus gave them the answer: ‘Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can only do what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
John 5:16
By knowing and following His ways, our work can be more excellent, as His ways are higher. But how can our actions truly impact nations? Maybe our company, or our clients, or our colleagues will have a global impact, but I often have found myself pondering what my contribution to that could possibly be.
I was inspired by a book I read recently: The Book That Transforms Nations by Loren Cunningham. I read about missionaries who had taken the Bible to nations that were ripe for transformation, and one story that particularly spoke to me was that of Abraham Kuyper whose mission ground was The Netherlands.
God spoke to Kuyper through a concept called “sphere sovereignty”. He saw five spheres that covered every area of a modern nation: self-government, family government, church government, civil government and societal government. He emphasised that each sphere should be founded in God’s Word and taught that Jesus should be Lord in all spheres. If every activity we commit to is directly responsible to God, then God’s influence will impact each of those spheres, including our workplace. This spoke to me as sometimes it “makes sense” for God to be at the head of some parts of our lives more than others, but if we are completely rooted in God’s ways then it wouldn’t make sense for His Word not to impact every sphere.
Kuyper wrote about working for the future: “We aim not for the apparent triumph of the moment, but for the ultimate success of our cause”. The pressure isn’t on us, God’s Word doesn’t return incomplete, it will always accomplish what it intends, what He wants and more importantly, when He wants.
“So is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11
Just as God’s ways our higher, His successes are different to ours. He cares for what we care for, but ultimately a bad day for us is not a failure for Him. As Kuyper described, we should live our lives in a way that our children’s children will be blessed, so we shouldn’t be discouraged if we don’t see change now. If we want to align our will with God’s will, we will find ourselves working to bring God’s kingdom to all we our doing. Nation transformation will happen through the power of God’s Word, which is where we find our strength.
I can say with confidence that all that is good within me came from God. From His Creation and the creativity He instilled in me, I am able to learn and grown and solve problems I face, in work and life. God’s Word says we love because He first loved us and I believe in the same way, if we replace the word love with impact, transform or grow we can impact, transform and grow others by how we have been impacted, transformed and grown by Him.
By being rooted in His Word and learning more of his personality and character, who He is will be reflected in who we are. David’s boldness, Solomon’s wisdom, Hosea’s grace and Noah’s faith are all examples of being impacted by who God is.
We have an incredible opportunity to have an intimate and personal relationship with our Creator and Sustainer, to be stretched, challenged, encouraged and loved by Him. As we receive those things from Him, we can use them in our work to allow all that we do and all those who it touches to be affected by who God is. His creativity allows us to innovate and His joy makes it such an exciting and thrilling opportunity that we get the privilege to live out every day.
His Word teaches us to live, and live life to the full.
“The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.”
John 10:10