Our Work Versus What God Has For Us-Basic Needs

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

 

Genesis 2:15

Every man has a need to work and gain satisfaction in caring and seeing something come from his efforts.

 

Man was created to have seven basic needs and each of us has a need for:

 

1. Dignity
2. Authority
3. Blessing and provision
4. Security
5. Purpose and meaning
6. Freedom and boundary
7. Intimate love and companionship

 

Many of our basic needs are derived from our work; it was one of the first acts God did for man in the Garden of Eden. He gave him responsibility to care for and work the Garden. God knew man needed to be productive and needed to gain satisfaction from his work.

The danger of this is when we allow our work to be our complete source of purpose and meaning in life—this leads to a performance-based life. A performance-based life says, "As long as I perform in my work, I am acceptable to myself and others." This is a subtle trap for all of us. It can lead us to become workaholics or miss out on other blessing (seen in the seven basic needs above) if we are seeking acceptance through what we do and sometimes this can be on a subconscious level.

Our value must be centered in God, not in what we do.

 

If we lose our job or our business, this should not devastate us if we are centered in God. Most certainly it may create difficulties, but God is the orchestrator of all the events in our lives for His purposes—even difficult times have purposes.

Today, ask God if you have a proper balance in all seven basic needs that He has designed us with, especially in the area or work.

 

Is God the central focus?

 

If you work long hours, ask yourself why.

 

You might discover that God may not be the central focus and He is calling you to focus on or accept the blessing in the other seven basic needs that you might be neglecting because you are so focused on work.