A Competent Worker

(Prov 14:35 GNB) Kings are pleased with competent officials, but they punish those who fail them.

This morning we continue our series, In this verse Solomon, a sitting king himself, tells us about the type of servants (or employees) that kings are pleased with and those who bring them shame and frustration.

To get a better understanding, let’s take a look at this verse from a couple of different translations. The God’s Word translation reads: “A king is delighted with a servant who acts wisely, but he is furious with one who acts shamefully.” The Moffatt translation reads: “The king favors an able minister; his anger is for the incompetent.”

The words I want to key in on are favor and competence. In a Biblical context, I define divine favor as: those situations where God raises up people who use their power, their ability, and their influence, to help you in ways that you cannot help yourself.

Whenever I teach on favor people get excited and they want to see the favor of God operating in their lives. However, Solomon – who was a king and a person who could give ‘favor’ to those whom he was pleased with – is telling us that favor is often tied to competence.

Too many believers today want God to magically do things for them, without any work, energy or effort on their part.

When you give your life to Christ and you are Born-Again in Him, it does not mean that from that point on you will be exonerated from work. No, as a matter of fact, it often means that you will be even busier, because (through the leading of God’s Spirit) you align yourself with God’s purpose for your life. Make no mistake; you are not going to maximize your purpose and potential, before you die, if you are lazy. It is going to take diligence, dedication, and good ole’ fashioned hard work.

In addition to working hard, Solomon is teaching us that the type of servants kings are truly pleased with are those who work smart; those who are competent, those who know their craft. It’s a sad commentary for a Christian to be incompetent at what they do.

As a believer, we are not paid to joke around at work all day, or to read our Bible when we should be working. We are paid to perform a certain job and when we realize that we are ultimately doing what we do for God, and not for man, we should be even more motivated to accomplish every task in excellence.

When we think of Biblical characters that received divine favor – people like Joseph, Mordecai, and Daniel – we see people who were excellent at what they were assigned to do. No employer (in his right mind) is going to reward incompetence, but they will definitely go out of their way for the servant (worker, employee) who excels in what they do and brings glory to their organization.

This reminds me of the story of the Centurion who had a sick servant and he came to Jesus for help and healing. A Centurion was a Roman officer who was in charge of 100 soldiers. In today’s terms he would be considered a Company Commander.

Luke says this about the Centurion and his servant: “There a centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die” (Luke 7:2). We know that the Centurion went out of his way (especially as a Roman) to find a Jewish miracle worker (Jesus), so that his servant could get better.

But why did the Roman officer do it? The text says that the Centurion highly valued this servant. I am pretty sure that he had other servants, but this one was precious to him. This one performed his job so well that his boss was willing to go out of his way to help get his breakthrough!

Would your boss do the same for you?

So what does this mean to you today? It simply means that you should strive to be the absolute best at what you do. Competence brings glory to God and to your organization. Incompetence brings glory to neither.

Father, I thank You for blessing me to be able to work. As I enter this day, I declare that I will not neglect my duties in any way. I rather seek to maximize my purpose and potential by diligently performing my duties in excellence. I seek to bring You and my organization glory, by doing all that I do in a quality manner. I will experience favor, because I will become a precious servant in the eyes of all those whom I serve! In Jesus’ name. Amen!