One morning, you hear the voice of the Lord calling you to take a few days off from work to go do something ministry-related.
Your heart and soul are convinced that this is the right thing to do because of the anticipated benefit for the Kingdom.
It might be a short-term missions trip to help dig a well in a parched village. It might be for four or five days to repair plumbing and electrical stuff at a low-income elderly relative’s house.
Perhaps it is simply the spending of time with a profoundly grieving sibling whose spouse just died.
In any of the above cases, it’s a matter of serving God by serving others.
But how do you get the time off unless you ask for it?
And how do you get the time off unless you’re in good standing with your boss?
Listen, we never know in advance when we’re going to be needed somewhere other than our job and we’ll have to ask for time off.
That’s why it is SO important to build a good reputation with our employer so that he or she is more willing to accommodate our request.
If we’re known as an employee with a rotten attitude or lazy tendencies, our request might not be honored.
But if we’re always loyal to our employer and work hard when on the clock in order to promote the employer’s best interests, our request will have a much better chance of success.
I encourage you to read of how this principle served the Kingdom of God more than 400 years before Christ.
This was the case with Nehemiah and you can read about it here.
Clearly, Nehemiah was respected and appreciated by his employer who not only granted the time off but also provided lots of material and security support for a very challenging mission.
It was Nehemiah’s years of faithful, godly service to a pagan king that paved the way for the granting of this ministry request.
Please be the best employee you can, always looking to serve your employer’s best interests.
For you never know when you’ll need to ask the employer a favor that will allow you to carry the favor of the Lord to someone else who needs it. As always, I love you Martin
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