What is the difference between your job and your work? Your work will give you an opportunity to exercise the gifts you have—the abilities God has given you, whereas your job may not use your gifts. The use of our gifts always brings fulfillment and joy into our lives.
Another difference is:
- Your job will result in income; your work may never result in income.
Most people go to their jobs each day primarily because they get paid to do it. I’m not saying you can’t enjoy doing your job and that there aren’t other motivational factors involved. But there are very few who would continue going to their job each day without compensation.
Your work may never pay you a dollar, but it will pay benefits that cannot be valued in earthly terms. When you are doing your work, what God has called you to do, you’re putting deposits in God’s heavenly bank, where thieves can’t steal it, and rust cannot destroy it. Your work certainly brings compensation, but it’s deposited in a different bank and held as a long-term invest
In our society where people are valued by the size of their salaries and bank accounts, this is a totally different perspective for a Christian, and one we have to adjust to. It’s one of those areas where we must fight not to allow the world to shove us into its mold or way of thinking.
- There is always someone else who can do your job; there is no one else who can do your work.
If you called your employer tomorrow and said, “I’m not coming back; you won’t see me again,” guess what? They would survive. It might cause some temporary problems, but somebody soon would move into your role, learn your job and do it.
However, you are indispensable when it comes to your work. If you don’t do the work God has called you to do, it will go undone. How do you know God has work for you to do? Because of Ephesians 2:10.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).
God has a to-do list just for you, and if you miss it, you’ll miss the abundant joy of doing the work God planned for you to do.
If you told me I could never use the gifts God has given me, I would feel empty. Life would be tasteless. My gifts are the activities that bring meaning and joy to my life.
Your job may employ your gifts, and if so, that is a blessing. If not, you still have work to do that is very meaningful. You just need to have a clear understanding, based on God’s Word, of the difference in your job and your work.