What Do You Mean Believers Have Other Duties as Assigned?

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3: 1 (NASB)
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3

We’ve been looking at a job description for a believer. Most career job descriptions have an “other duties as assigned” phrase at the end. This devotion looks at what that would mean for our believer’s job description.

Nuggets

In our jobs, the “other duties as assigned” phrase can mean that duties can be added to our responsibilities that we would rather not be added.
God sometimes changes the plans for our lives that we question.
We need to remember that God knows the reasons for the change and knows the plans for our lives.
We need to remain obedient when God changes our plans.

To read devotions in the What It Means to Be a Believer series, click the appropriate button below.

The What It Means to Be a Believer series ends with this post. Plus, Adam and I are almost home from the mission trip/vacation.

I thought it was appropriate to end the job duties with the usually dreaded “other duties as assigned” designation. That is a good catch-all duty, so employers don’t have to keep redoing the job descriptions.

Other Duties as Assigned

We, as employees, usually dread this line of our job descriptions because we basically have little control over it. Duties can be assigned to us that we feel we are not qualified for, have no desire to perform, and/or increases the workload significantly — with no added compensation.

I was lucky for the most part. The other duties always were interesting and challenging to me. When job reclassification studies came along, I would receive promotions because of them.

The bad part came at the end. My new supervisor made the comment that I was performing way above my job classification. I just looked at her and thought, “We’ve all known that for years.”

What Other Duties Does God Give Us?

You might be scratching your head as to how God uses other duties as assigned. I think He does. The other duties as assigned that God gives us are those in His plan that aren’t necessarily in our plan.

Have you ever had your life all planned out, and God sent you in another direction? That happened to me with my spiritual tornado. I was planning on staying in education, not writing daily devotions.

Have you ever gotten a surprise promotion — in a different state? God could have a number of different reasons to transplant you. Maybe He was getting you out of a bad situation — that was either happening then or coming. Maybe He was sending you somewhere where you would grow more. Maybe there were people in the new state that you had to impact their lives.

Making the Connections

God can change our direction for any number of reasons. He may want us to keep doing what we are doing somewhere else or do something totally different. It could be our reason or someone else’s reason.

I think a lot of times we get so used to what we have been doing that we don’t see the opportunities. We generally don’t like change, so we are upset when God mixes things up.

It could be a control issue. Giving up control is hard for us to do.

Then again, how many times do we think we don’t have the knowledge or skills to do what God is asking us to do? It isn’t on our radar because we sell ourselves short. When it ends up a wonderful opportunity for us, we are glad that we let God have control.

How Do We Apply This?

We have to be ready for whatever God calls us to do. We have to be ready – even if we don’t want to switch jobs, or states, or churches, or friends, or [fill in the blank].

God knows what He has created us to do and be. He made us for this – even if we don’t feel made. We have to trust His plan for our lives.

So, we pray and make sure we know what that plan is. We give Him control.

We have to remember that God has reasons for doing what He does. Second Thessalonians 1: 11 says, “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power” (ESV). I love that — God is making us worthy.

God knows what we need. He knows the past, present, and future. He has everything worked out to advance His kingdom.

We have to remember that God calls us to do His work. Second Peter 1:10 says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall” (ESV). Our work is important — our being a child of God is more important.

We also have to remember that God’s ways are higher than our ways (Isa. 55: 8-9). He knows how everything is interconnected. He will work it out for His glory. He loves us and will provide for us.

So, when God decides to change things up, we just need to keep our faith and trust in Him. We need to continue to do what He calls us to do.

Gracious Heavenly Father. Your ways are so much higher than ours (Isa. 55: 8-9). You know all things, and You know what is best for us. Help us to keep our faith and trust in You when You ask us to do something we are unsure of. Help us to remain faithful to You and, if we question the situation, do so in faith. We look forward to seeing You work in our lives. Amen.

What do you think?

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