A Hostile Work Environment

The words, "hostile work environment" describe a negative situation in which someone is repeatedly subjected to harsh treatment in the workplace.  Anyone who has ever been subjected to that type of abuse knows how distressing it can be.  It's only by the grace of God that those caught up in such situations are able to come out.

A hostile work environment is the last thing anyone would voluntarily face.  In fact, the more hostile the situation, the quicker one starts looking for the exit.  With that in mind, why don't Christians decide to create a hostile work environment for evil?  Why not make the environment around us so uncomfortable for evil that it starts looking for a way out instead of the other way around?

I know it sounds really strange, but just think about it.  What would happen if we deliberately chose to infect our workplaces and other settings with the fruit of the Spirit?  What would happen if the love in the room was so thick you could almost reach out and grab it? Sounds crazy?  Why? We are certainly familiar with situations in which we say the tension in the air was so thick we could "cut it with a knife," so why not the opposite?

How would our day go if we came in and claimed the territory around us for the Lord and invited the Holy Spirit to have free reign in it and us? What if we didn't just try this once or twice, but were relentless in our efforts to fill the atmosphere with all that is holy on a daily basis?

Light and dark can't co-exist.  So, what we have sometimes depends on which one we choose and nurture.

Why is it that people influenced by evil seem to have more energy and commitment than those of us influenced by Christ? Someone obsessed with harming someone else will fixate on that mission so intently that they will even wait years to accomplish their goal if necessary.

On the other hand, we will pray for something and then are ready to give up completely if it doesn't come to us right away or in the time frame or packaging we think it should.

I'm fighting off a nasty cold today, and as I gargled with Listerine, drank lots of orange juice and hot tea, etc,. I realized I was creating a hostile work environment for the germs in my throat.   If I simply did nothing, the germs would continue multiplying in their attempt to take me over.  It's their job to multiply, but I was interfering with their work by changing the environment in which they had to operate.

When we look at the world around us, we see evil multiplying more and more.  It may be an uphill battle, but we must be determined to interfere with evil whenever we can.  Let's refuse to just sit back and let evil have an easy triumph.  Let's step up our game and start boldly and relentlessly creating a hostile work environment for the devil.  Let's take God at His word when He says,

"Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7).

To submit is to trust. To submit is to commit. To submit is not to quit.

BNcouraged!

Rev. Karen