Exodus 35:21-22, “Everyone came whose heart was stirred, and everyone whose spirit was willing… they came, both men and women, as many as had a willing heart.”

God has put within men gifts and talents of many varieties and He expects men to work and exercise these gifts in order to better the world around him and also to provide for his family. The devil seeks to make men wimpy, lethargic and unresponsive to the God-given call to work. He wants to demean man who was made in the image of God to be less than what God made him to be.

We need to feed our hearts with enthusiasm for work. Many of us claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit, but for the life of me, I cannot see the Holy Spirit standing about loafing while there’s work to be done. Let’s face it; if we take God Himself for an example of good workmanship, we would have to say that He set an incredible example in the first six days of creation. Just imagine how much thought and effort went into creating one rose! And yet in six days the Bible tells us He created all things. Wow! Talk about work! Most of us do not even know the meaning of it. I think we would all have to say that God deserved His rest on the seventh day.

It is time for us to stir up our hearts and have willing spirits to do the work that God has appointed us to do. If we put more of our leisure time into prayer and seeking God instead of being a couch potato watching TV, we would find our hearts and spirits being a whole lot more stirred up to work.

We read in Nehemiah 3:5, “Next to them the Tokoites made repairs; but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work of their Lord.” What on earth was the matter with these Tekoite nobles that they didn’t put their necks to the work of their Lord? Perhaps their nobility had turned them into stuck-up wimps. Maybe they thought themselves too high and mighty to get their hands dirty. They were contradictions to the name “noble” which means “lofty and exalted in character, showing greatness.” These men did not deserve the title of “noble.” Perhaps they did not view the work as being “the work of their Lord.” They may have seen it as Nehemiah’s work. It’s time that we viewed work from God’s perspective. We should view it as the Lord’s work and nothing is too menial, too dirty or too hard for Him.

For those who will not arise to work whole-heartedly, realizing that work is “our Lord’s work”, perhaps the words of Nehemiah 2:20 apply. “So I answered them, and said to them, The God of heaven himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.” We have been called together to work with God to build the new Jerusalem. The challenge is: how much portion, how much right and how much memorial will we have?

Nehemiah 2:18, “And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.” What does it mean to strengthen your hands for work? I have seen men rub their hands together before tackling a difficult and heavy task. Let us who would be real men, cast aside all wimpiness and slackness, rub our hands together and strengthen our hands for the work. It would be a good thing to do this before you go to work every morning. Start rubbing those hands together. Strengthen those hands and tell them to be diligent and that you are going to put them to some hard work today.

Work is a part of life. It is not to be looked upon as drudgery. Work is not something to be avoided but to be embraced and enjoyed. My wife writes in her manual, The Power of Motherhood, p. 78, “Work is the law of man’s being. Work is divinely inspired. If we do not work, we will suffer atrophy in body, mind and spirit. Work is therapeutic – physically, emotionally and mentally.” In this book Nancy lists 24 Scriptural attitudes we should have toward work. I will list these attitudes but will make my own comments on them. This may take several episodes but I believe it will do us all much good.