God’s Light Shining on Career
And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men." And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
(Mark 1:17-18)
As the first month of this year comes to an end, we take this final week in prayer – seeking God for renewal and a new anointing for this year’s journey. We will also be praying for this nation and the nations of the world in this unprecedented dispensation affected by COVID-19. We will do all it takes to pray – as we meet together physically, online and on air. Let us vigilantly receive and respond to the Word of the Lord as He says to us: ‘Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known.’ (Jer 33:3)
Following the reflection on ‘Let there be light’, we now turn to light shining on career – on our vocations, jobs, businesses, and even dreams. Jesus invitation to Simon and Andrew may have sounded like simple lake language, but it carries great insights about our careers when God’s light shines on them: ‘Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.’ Simply put, the epitome of their fishing career would not be in their highest profits, or highest skill in determining the best time to fish, or in their expansion by buying more boats and hiring more people; the epitome of this business would be in the ‘fishing of men’ in the service of their new Master Jesus Christ. Have you thought about your career, and the gospel demands it must answer?
John Ortberg wrote a good book entitled ‘The Me I Want To Be: becoming God’s best version of you’. It is a book about the battle between a flourishing self and a languishing self, as it moves from deep inside you to a world waiting for God’s redemption. The oldest temptation is that we “will be like God”, yet real life begins when one dies to that false god ‘that is me’; Ortberg dramatically challenges: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ I suppose the even bigger fool, looking in the mirror, has said, ‘There is a god!’” A follower of Jesus Christ ought to begin by recognizing that there is a God, and it is not me/you. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph 2:20). The right measure of humility is bound to set in when you agree that God thought you up, and he knows what you were intended to be.
God wants to extend the output of your learning, skills and experience to grow His Kingdom. As you listen to God, hear what He is calling you to do to ‘fish for people’. His light will shine on your career journey and you will serve Him and receive your highest joy and reward that lasts forever.
God bless you all.