There is a growing misconception in the church today.
We have, in many ways, over-spiritualized rest and under-spiritualized work.
Resting feels holy. Quiet time feels spiritual. A long walk without your phone can even feel righteous.
But what about punching the clock on Monday? What about your Tuesday management meetings? The Wednesday deadlines? These things rarely feel the same to us spiritually.
Somewhere along the way, we began to believe that rest is the highest Christian activity, while work is merely the necessary evil. But Scripture tells a different story.
A God Who Works
If you open your Bible to the very first page, we are not introduced to a God at rest. We are introduced to a God at work.
Genesis 1 is not a meditation retreat. It’s a construction site. In it, God speaks, forms, builds, and creates—for six straight days. It is only after the work that God takes time to rest. And when He does, it’s not because He’s exhausted; it’s because the work is finished.
Rest, in the biblical order, is not the starting place of the human experience. It is the natural response to the human experience, which is in a word, to work.
Work Was Good Before It Was Hard
Before sin entered the world, Adam was already working his job. He tended the Garden of Eden. He named the animals. His work was a gift before it was a burden.
It was only after the fall that God cursed Adam’s work. God told him that his food would now come “by the sweat of your brow,” and that the ground will produce for him “thorns and thistles.”
That is why work often feels so difficult. That is why work can feel draining. Our work still remains a very good thing, but it now exists under a very real weight.
Made in the Image of a Worker
The truth is, work is not just something God does, it is part of who He is. Jesus makes this unmistakably clear in John 5:17.
When the Pharisees criticize Him for healing on the Sabbath, Jesus responds with a simple, profound statement:
“My Father is always working, and so am I.”
God works, all the time.
Jesus works, all the time.
And we—created in His image—were made to do the same.
This doesn’t mean grinding ourselves into the ground. It doesn’t mean living as cogs in a machine or measuring our worth by productivity; it means recognizing something more meaningful in our work.
You are a worker, because you are a human being. You were made in the image of our Creator, which means you were designed to build, cultivate, steward, imagine, and bring order out of chaos. You were created to co-labor with God in the world He loves.
So as we step fully into 2026, my encouragement to you is simple:
See yourself through accurate eyes.
You are not a “rester” who occasionally works, you are a worker who occasionally rests.
You were created by a working God, redeemed by a working Savior, and called to do meaningful work in the world.
So let’s get after it.
Let’s do the work in 2026.
