When it comes to your job, ask yourself why you do what you do. Be honest. Do you simply go through your work week longing for the weekend? Are there days you dread going to work? Do you feel like there’s no real purpose or meaning in what you do? If so, you most likely consider work a means of earning a living, providing for your family, and preparing for retirement. If that’s the case, you’re caught up in the daily grind.

God ordained work to be a blessing to man and the environment. Because of the fall, work often comes with frustration, exhaustion, conflict, and futility. Through Christ we find redemption not only for our eternal souls but for our lives here on earth. He can redeem your work and make it a blessing whereby you find joy and fulfillment.

To make that happen you need to see yourself as holding three important positions.

1. A Person Bearing God’s Image

As a person created in God’s image you need to remember why you’re here in the first place. Your primary purpose on this earth is twofold; loving God and loving others. Jesus said the command to love God and your neighbor as yourself sums up the entire law. As an individual you are uniquely designed by your Creator. He sovereignly orchestrated your physical characteristics and your environment to fulfill his purpose for your life.

As you go to work each day, remember you’re who you are, and where you are is a matter of divine appointment. Seeing your job as a means of glorifying God and serving your fellow man can help get the grind out of work and replace it with a sense of purpose. No matter what it is you do, see it as part of a much larger picture, one that God is painting and that will bring glory to Him and fulfillment to you.

Through Christ we find redemption not only for our eternal souls but for our lives here on earth.

2. A Steward Managing God’s Resources

The steward mentality sees God as the ultimate employer. He’s the boss to whom all of us will one day give account. He has entrusted us with resources, skills, abilities, talents, and opportunities for which we are responsible to use for his glory. In Jesus’ parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) the master gave his money to his servants according to their ability. The first two used those resources productively, while the third servant, in fear, hid the money. Upon the master’s return that last servant was not only severely rebuked, he lost what he had been given.

Think of your job as a stewardship entrusted to you by God. What are you going to do with it? Will you strive to make it better; more productive? Or do you simply do as little as possible just to get by? Are you willing to take risks? Do you apply yourself to the best of your ability? “Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful.” 1 Corinthians 4:2

3. An Ambassador Proclaiming God’s Message

Living out these truths, that you have been uniquely formed by God, a bearer of his image, and that you are a steward entrusted with God-given resources, will provide a platform for God’s message. Patrick Morley writes: “The main thing happening in your work is that God is sovereignly orchestrating all the seemingly unrelated occurrences of your day to bring you—and the people you touch—into right relationship with Him and right relationship with people.”

In his great intercessory prayer in John 17, Jesus prayed for you and me. In that incredible prayer he explains what our relationship to this world entails. It involves being called out of the world (vs. 6), still living in the world (vs. 11), yet not being of the world (vs.14), and finally, being sent into the world (vs. 18). Your job in this world is a position of influence for the sake of God’s kingdom. We are sent into the world to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ through the person God made us to be and the job he’s given us to do. Whether cleaning bathrooms, serving food, taking a deposition, or writing code, it is a holy calling.

God is sovereignly orchestrating all the seemingly unrelated occurrences of your day to bring you into right relationship with Him

If your job is beginning to feel like a daily grind, take some time to consider your daily tasks as fulfilling these three positions. Don’t just earn a paycheck, glorify God through passionately pursuing his calling. Do your job as one uniquely designed for the job, as one faithfully managing divine resources, and as one who represents God’s kingdom in this world.