My Job is my Only Source of Income…Is It True?

My Job is my Only Source of Income - Is It True?

Yes, it is true because it’s been my experience and it's not just my life that proves it – I’ve seen it in the lives of many other people as well. I find that a person's salary is what ultimately determines their prosperity. Sure, some people do make money through investments or the lottery – but on the whole, it tends to be a person’s job that determines their quality of life from a financial perspective. In my experience, people tend not to win the lottery or have people give them large sums of money or big-ticket items as a gift.

Can I Absolutely Know for Certain it’s True?

No.

Who Am I With This Thought?

With this thought that my job is my only source of income, I become cornered and trapped by that thought. I allow my job title and salary figure to determine God's willingness and ability to bless me and meet my needs. If I think that my job title and salary figure at this very moment in time is a measure of my ability to prosper in the future -- I could descend into a state of despair if I don't feel that I measure-up.

Worry about my job title and salary figure and the desire to get promoted at work, is simply distrust in God's ability as a Father to meet my needs. If I truly trusted in God then I would not worry about my performance in the workplace. What is happening is that I am reacting to other people's performance-driven attitude that one has to work hard and achieve much in order to prosper in this life. I find that people's outlook on life tends to be very self-centred and performance related. It is for this reason why the Gospel of Christ is so hard for people to relate to.

The true Gospel, apart from man-made religion, is a message of God's acceptance of you and willingness to bless you - just the way you are. So why don't Christians get blessed like the Bible, and preachers, seem to say they should? I believe it all comes down to unbelief, or in other words, a tendency to worry. As soon as we look to what we have, what other people say about us, what we did in the past and so on, to define us, we are living in unbelief. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of thing unseen. We walk by faith, not by sight.

It is an obsession with titles, labels, ability, possessions and the like - that keeps us enslaved to those things. This obsession with what is seen ultimately leads to a sense of inadequacy, because there is always someone better than ourselves who has more than we have.

There are also those people who adamantly cling on to their perception of their own ability in order to determine their ability to live a good quality of life. But this performance-driven mentality is very exclusive: only those who seem to have what it takes and who are able to meet the standards, which will qualify them to reap the rewards of life. In this performance-driven world that we live in, it seems that those people who do not have the ability to meet the standards imposed upon them by others, simply fall by the wayside, deprived of the good things of life (including the approval of others).

The message of the gospel is the message of equality: it is a message of God's acceptance regardless of our behaviour and ability. Some people do not like that because their pride causes them to want to merit the rewards of life and the approval of others, according to their ability. The parable of the workers in the vineyard and the parable of the prodigal son, show us the love of the Father towards us. Even though we don't have the ability to deserve things according to our own efforts and ability -- we can always look to God as our loving heavenly Father who will meet our needs.

The truth of the matter is that nobody has what it takes in order to merit the favour and blessing of God according to their efforts. The Bible tells us that no one can be justified by the law: the keeping of rules. The Bible also tells us that the only thing that we have that pleases God is our faith. It is ridiculous for me to believe that God will not meet my needs and prosper me, unless I achieve certain standards in the workplace. I know for certain that God can give me simple ideas, such as investments, that would make me rich relatively quickly. Am I to believe that God will not give me the knowledge to invest my money properly, until I am working my butt off at the office and meriting the approval of my managers? God is a Father to me -- He is not a schoolteacher who is looking for good grades.

When I believe that my job is my only source of income -- it frightens me. It makes me question God's love for me and his willingness and ability to meet my needs and to provide for me a good quality of life. Self-help teaching and the prosperity branch of Christianity, have led me to believe that there is something that I can do by my own efforts in order to influence God's ability to bless me. These efforts in the past have simply exhausted and frustrated me. The truth of the matter is that the only thing that I can do in order to live the good quality of life and get my needs met -- is to simply trust in God. When I believe that my job is my only source of income, it makes me believe that God will not care for me.

The most likely way that I will prosper in life he is through good investments. If I simply made the right investments in the stock market -- I really would not have to worry one little bit about my job title or salary figure. I could easily remain at the same grade I am now, but with good investments, I could earn more money than CEO of my company. But when I believe that my job title and salary figure control my ability to prosper -- I limit my ability to hear from God and to invest my money properly. Thinking the thought that my job is my only source of income, blocks any inspiration and guidance from God which would enable me to invest my money properly.

Ultimately, what determines my ability to prosper in life from a financial perspective is the ability to make good decisions. I could get promoted three times and be earning twice as much as what I'm earning now; but if I make poor decisions with my money, I could lose everything that I have been made bankrupt. I know people who earn a lot more money than me in their job, but they have made poor decisions with their money and missed important opportunities. If a person is frustrated and unhappy, they are likely to spend a lot of their money of things they don't need, which they believe will make them happy. I know of people with wonderful job titles and salary figures, and yet, they are paying a small fortune to live in a small flat on a busy road in a crowded and rather unpleasant area. God could spare me all of this struggle if I simply rested my mind in his love for me and stopped worrying about money.

I see people in the workplace who seem to derive a sense of purpose and identity through their job title, salary figure and performance. This can become a real sense of pride for some people, and to be honest with you -- it sickens me! A lot of these people go around thinking that they are better than everybody else and they deserve the blessings of life and the approval of others more than the next person. It is this kind of pride that can keep people out of God's blessing and favour. Just because someone does well in his job - it doesn't mean that they are right with God and that they are blessed. I know of people who could be called "rich" and yet their marriage is falling apart and they're suffering from depression.

What would it be like if I didn't think this thought?

If I didn't worry about money I certainly wouldn't worry about my job and my ability to perform in the workplace. If I made a mistake in the workplace, perhaps got something wrong or forgot to do something, it wouldn't bother me, as long as I did not think the thought that my job was my only source of income.

The truth of the matter is that God is my source of income. The Bible says in the book of Deuteronomy, "You shall remember the Lord thy God for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth." We often do forget that it is God who gives us the power to get wealth and to prosper in life. I believe that the way that God moves in our lives is, more often than not, in ways that are natural and inconspicuous - I call this the "everyday supernatural". We are conditioned from a very early age to believe that we are rewarded according to our efforts. At the sports day at school, it is always the winners who come away with the prizes. But our God is not like that: He cares for us and provides for us, not because of what we do for Him, but because of what He has already done for us through Christ.

If I knew that God would provide for me, regardless of my performance in the workplace, I would not be so eager to climb the corporate ladder at any cost. Sure, it is quite possible that God wants to promote certain people in the workplace, myself included perhaps, but I can never look to getting promoted in the workplace as the only means by which I can prosper financially in this life. Freedom from this limiting thought would give me a childlike trust in the Almighty. I would be open to new and different ways for God to move in my life and to meet my needs. I would be free of this concept of effort-and-reward that just brings so much misery to mankind.

Let's turn it around...

My job is not my only source of income -- God is my source of income.