In the span of six months after returning to a company that I thoroughly enjoyed working for during my undergrad in Orlando, I found myself the recipient of a stellar promotion. In retrospect and even now, all I can think about is the increased amount of responsibility and humility that this promotion will require. But today I want to focus on the topic of promotions, and how they affect our spiritual lives.
I can’t even count how many people have congratulated me and followed up with “God is so good!” OR “You are so blessed. That is awesome.”
While the bible teaches us that every good and perfect thing comes from God (James 1:17). Not every promotion that we are offered is considered to be a “good and perfect” thing. To be clear, I feel peace about the promotion that I was offered, and I know that in this role of managing and assisting others I will continue to be molded and shifted in to the woman and leader that the Lord has called me to be.
Lets take it back to my senior year of College. I had the very same opportunity, with the same company just in a different state. My schedule was packed with 18 credit hours. I was serving in 2-3 ministries at church on Wednesdays and Sundays and I still found time to babysit occasionally on the weekends. I was stretched pretty thin and I know without the shadow of a doubt that God gave me crazy grace to pass all of my courses. I was also able to stay connected to the church and work responsibilities. Had I accepted this position years ago, I imagine that things would have gone downhill quickly. All of my free time to fellowship and serve would have been eaten up with this new responsibility and studying (which was already a rare occasion for me) would have been nearly impossible.
Just thinking about what a nightmare that would have been in that season of my life makes me think of 1 John 2:16: “For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.”
Twenty year old Amber wanted to have it all. The lofty new position and pay, to serve diligently at church, to ace all her classes and to feel like somebody. The truth of the matter is, that we are all somebody. In spite of promotion, titles, and money, we are ALL somebody in Christ. If we continue to chase after every promotion available, we will lose sight of what God is trying to do in our lives. We will continue to crave more and more and we will never be satiated.
Just think of all the lost souls in the world who make work their life. Up checking emails at 4AM, no time to entertain their spouses or their families. People like that will drive themselves to an early grave and have nothing to show for it when they meet Jesus. The enemy’s plan is to distract us from the will of God and if all it takes is a promotion, many of us are already in trouble.
Be led by the spirit in the promotions and positions that you accept. This new role that I will eventually be operating in, is not something that I will be able to do on my own. It’s going to take a lot of surrender and a lot of the Holy Spirit.
I’m totally excited and ready, but all the more vigilant to protect the quality of not only my work ethic, but my relationship with Christ.
Love y’all,
Amber
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