Spiritual Coffee: Why Every Job Matters to God - Christian Errors We Often Believe - Demand More of God

Today's collection to stimulate your Christian thinking and encourage your heart. I deliberately took a break from political and policy subjects today.
(Prior collections here under Spiritual Coffee.)

Faith at Work: Individual Purpose, Flourishing Communities, 30 Christian leaders collected in a 28-page PDF (Institute for Faith, Work & Economics)
If you feel like what you do at your job all week has no meaning other than keeping your bills paid and having the means to do good things for your family, friends, and church, you need to read this. Some of the best explanations of why every job matters in God's kingdom, collected and summarized. Includes Tim Keller, Os Guinness, Andy Crouch, Nancy Pearcey, Greg Thornbury, Sam Brownback, and many more gifted Christian writers.

Three Lies Christians Believe, Tricia Lott Williford (PJ Media)
A useful and quick explanation of three common assumptions Christians make about how God works, and how they affect how we feel about what happens to us. There's enough here to make us reflect on God's Word for quite a while. Williford gives a positive counterpoint to each, to encourage a healthy mindset that accepts the complexity of God's purposes with hope and trust.

"If you believe God wants you to be happy, then you’ll believe that whatever makes you happy is okay with God. If you believe God wants you to be happy, then you’ll also believe that whatever makes you unhappy can’t possibly be what God wants for you."

"He wants more than just your happiness. Here’s where we got it wrong: 'He will give you the desires of your heart' (Psalm 37:4). We found the part we liked, and we held on to that with both hands… but we have forgotten the entire verse. Here’s the whole thing: 'Take delight in God, and he will give you the desires of your heart.' What that means: Want what he wants, and then he will give you what you want. Be part of what he’s doing, and you’ll find something so much deeper, bigger, and better than happiness."

"Truth: Following God will make your life better. But here’s the corollary: better is almost always harder. Anytime you undertake a journey of transformation, you know that better is almost always harder. Get healthier, pay off debts, climb a mountain, run a marathon, fix your marriage—all of these things are better and harder than the lazy life. You and I will have some pain in our lives. We’ll face heartache and disillusionment and hurt. That’s a result of the world we live in, this world that’s been ruined. But every time we encounter pain, we get in touch with what’s actually happening, what’s really going on in this world: God is making it new. And like everything else worth having, the journey is hard."

2 Audacious Demands We Are to Make of God, Philip Graham Ryken (Crossway)
Short meditation on why we should be as bold as Moses in asking God to show Himself to us.

"Any man who seeks God's calling should pray the way Moses prayed. We should ask God to give us intimate knowledge of him. The things we do will be successful only if God is in them. Whenever we do something that God has called us to do—whether it is serving in our singleness, learning how to be married, working at a job, or getting involved in ministry—we need to pray that God will show us his way to go about things.

"Moses also wanted something more: he wanted to see God's glory. This request was not as imperious as most translations make it sound. In the original Hebrew it comes across more like an entreaty; Moses was saying "Please . . . " Still, it was an audacious request. The prophet was asking to see the splendor and radiance of God."