Kairos Consultancy Group

Why are you a Christian?

Why do you believe the things you do?

Why do you make the choices that you do every day at work?

For some of us, our faith is inherited – we were born into a family that adhered to Christianity and we followed suit never really considering any other alternative.

Some of us stumbled into Christianity at some point in our lives – you found God, perhaps more it’s more apt to say He found, and you’ve journeyed together since then.

And there are certainly those of us who are straddled between faith and the world in an impossible act of balance and convenience.

Having faith is one thing; sustaining it is another. If you know why your faith matters, then you will be more compelled to ensure it is kept thriving.

There are the spiritual disciplines and practices that make your spiritual house a home that you can inhabit and thrive in. While this is something that we may appreciate from a general point of view, how many of us consider it from the context of our workplace?

And I’m not talking about Sunday routines where we pick up God as we pick up our Bibles to go to church (if at all you’re not in the bedside baptist gang) then leave Him behind in church because it’s His house. I mean what our lives look like on every other day except Sunday.

Every day you walk into your business/workplace you submit yourself to constant withdrawal throughout the day. People and situations will draw on your time, energy, focus, thoughts, emotions, etc. They’ll also withdraw from your spirit whether you’re conscious of it or not.

While the impact on our physical bodies may be more pronounced to us, it doesn’t negate what our souls and spirits have endured in the course of our work day. But if we’re ignorant of the toll and oblivious of the need to refill and recharge, it’s no wonder we end up quickly stretched thin and burned out.

Burn out is first spiritual long before it ever manifests physically. Discouragement and despair will often have their roots in the spiritual realm even though their fruit is most evident in the natural realm.

If we truly believe in a God who is Spirit, in our nature as spiritual being, how can we afford to be so aloof about our spiritual wellbeing? Our spirits are what connect us to the Spirit of God. If we don’t nurture this connection and ensure that we get what we need to, we go into our work lives unarmed and unprepared to face what is coming our way.

No one in their right mind goes into a race or a battle unprepared. Consider that the hardship you feel in your workplace may not be a reflection of how hard things are but how ill-equipped and ill-prepared you are.

“You need a daily baptism of the Spirit of God.”

– Bishop John Gobanga

How can you better steward your faith in the workplace?

Mind

What are you feeding your mind?  What thoughts do you allow to find a place in your mind? Do you have any boundaries for what you will and won’t entertain mentally? Are you intentional in filling your mind with the truth of God? Whether it comes in the form of sermons, music, posts or spending more time with the colleague who will spur you on to good works than the one who will lead you down a rabbit hole, it all adds up to something.

If your mind is more exposed to negativity and the lies of the enemy than it is to hope and truth, why would you be surprised that your faith struggles in the workplace? Feed on truth and it will strengthen you from within.

Heart

Our ability to incubate life is parallel to our ability to incubate death. Are you dwelling on people who treated you unfairly or situations that didn’t go as you’d expected? Unresolved issues and emotions fester and multiply over time. Anger, bitterness and unforgiveness will derail your spiritual life faster than you have time to comprehend what’s happening. Letting go of things and people doesn’t mean we ignore how we feel; it means we intentionally and regularly address our emotions with the Holy Spirit so our emotional health doesn’t suffer. You need a healthy heart to carry the issues of your life and your workplace to fruition.

Will  

Faith grows not just by hearing but also by doing the word of God. The more action you take in accordance to the will of God for your life, the more your faith expands. Because trusting God ceases to be an unfamiliar space and the God you trust becomes more Friend than stranger. You get to see and experience for yourself the benefits of taking steps of faith which emboldens you for the next time you need to take a leap into the unknown. How intentional are you on acting on what you know to be true concerning the Lord and yourself?

Body

For as long as we’re on this earth, we need our physical bodies to be at their best. There’s little point in being on fire spiritually if your body caves at the slightest bit of activity. We need to be fit for kingdom work. It doesn’t have to be rocket science or pocket damaging. Start with what you’re having for breakfast and lunch every day. Do your meals wholesomely fuel you or do they just fill an ache within? Check your inactivity levels. Consider taking the stairs rather than the lift; walking to your lunch joint rather than driving there; etc.

When it comes to taking care of our bodies, people will often give reasons why they can’t that are in reality excuses why they won’t. Ironically, one of the most obvious yet relegated points of stewardship is that which God has given us over our physical bodies. We never imagine God would ask us how well we took care of our bodies – the very bodies Paul refers to as His temple.

Spirit

How often do you engage with the Holy Spirit in the course of your work day? Prayer doesn’t have to mean everything comes to a standstill for you to utter words with your eyes firmly closed for God to hear you. If there’s one thing we need to figure out as believers, it’s how to co-exist with the Holy Spirit and interact with Him while you’re on the move. He will comfort you when you’re upset, encourage you when you’re down, give you wisdom to answer questions and respond to situations as they come, shuts your mouth when you’re about to say something really foolish, I could go on endlessly. He is by far the most fundamental yet underutilized resource we have in the workplace.

This is the way of faithful stewardship. What we receive from God requires us to make a sacrifice to sustain and increase exponentially. Change in your life is only a decision and an action away. Freely we have received, but intentionally we must steward.