Mini Series: Lessons From Successful People | Love Work

This 2019 as Gaba Community Church God is leading us to look at “Abundant Living.” It’s the 3rd month and the response of various members to this message is overwhelming. The following few weeks we shall look at the “5 Things that I’ve learnt from successful people.”

Everyone views success in a different lens some people look at it in terms of how much money you have in the bank, here in Buganda they will look at how much land you own, in western Uganda they will look at how many cows you own, in other nations they will look at what position you hold in a big company or how many degrees you have etc.

Looking through scripture, success is defined through the life of Jesus. ” And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52 (NIV). This means He not only had a good standing with God but had a social report with man. A successful life means having a healthy, quality life with God, with your family and society at large where you not only associate with them but impact their lives.

After defining successful people as those who live to the Glory of God, let’s look at the first thing I’ve learnt from them:

• Successful people love to work, and they love their work

There are societies which look at work as a punishment, I remember back in school when I came late, and I was given a portion to dig. Digging is work and giving it as a punishment to children is setting a wrong example of work to them. In some cultures, work is for survival, others it is to thrive and in others, it is for consumption but all-in-all work should be looked at as a partnership with God.
In the Hebrew language, the word for work is “melakah” it is translated as “occupation,” “work,” or “business.” This word appears 167 times in the Old Testament. If the bible repeats a word that many times it means it’s very important. God honors and loves work, therefore as Christians we should enjoy it.

“By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so, on the seventh day He rested from all His work” Genesis 2:2 (NIV). This scripture tells us that God works and because He loves work, so should we. It took God work to create us, therefore, we too should work. God put man in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it, meaning we were even created to work. Work is a very important part of the kingdom and therefore we ought to work and enjoy it.

Most successful people I’ve encountered look at work as part of their life, as part of their responsibility and as an opportunity God has given them to make a difference at their place of work. Work is our full-time ministry, me God has called me to teach the word of God, others are called to treat sick people, others to use their accounting abilities in banks and so on. Through Work, God can lead, rule and, manage His people. Whatever it is that you do, big or small your Jesus’ hands in bringing services to His people and adding to His work of creation, therefore, do it to the Glory of God.

My prayer for those that read this blog is that you will realize that your work is beautiful, that work honors God. For those that have leadership roles and are responsible for other staff, make work joyful for those that work under you. For those that God has called to be pioneers, dream harder and bigger to create more employment opportunities for God’s people.

Remember your God’s workmanship, you were created by God for great works. What talents do you have? What profession do you have? What skills do you have? Can you find out what God put in your life and run with it, raise those skills to serve the God that called you?
The successful people that I have met, love to work and love their work and so should you.