It’s a strange question but it’s one that needs to be asked. If you work in a technical field or have a job that requires a lot of knowledge, then its easy to fall into the trap of relying more on search engines than God for your answers.
You most likely search the mighty pages of Google often if you are an IT manager, web developer, desktop support person, or are in some other technical or business related field. But there is One that’s mightier than Google that wants to help you in the everyday routine of your job 🙂
I’m not saying that you should never visit Google.com ever again. I’m just bringing to light a danger that Christians could fall into if they aren’t careful while doing their jobs or ministry.
I know this because I’ve made this mistake often in the past.
So How Do You Find Out if You’ve Fallen into This Trap?
Take the test.
Answer each one of these questions and every time you answer yes, then give yourself 1 point.
- I usually find myself praying to God once or twice a day.
- In my prayer time, I rarely ask God to help me with a work related question or decision.
- When faced with a technical problem that I don’t know the answer to, the first place I turn to almost always is Google or some other search engine.
- I think that the “Big Guy upstairs” has better things to do than give me answers to my work questions. He has things like world hunger, earthquakes, and homeless people to worry about.
- If I ask God a work related question, I’m not sure how He would give me the answer.
- I don’t think its necessary to ask God for help in secular things like my work.
- I think that God has given me a brain and that that is the primary way that He helps me to do my job.
Scoring Your Results
If you’re anything like me, you’ve answered yes to a couple of these questions. Don’t worry if you scored high, you’re in good company 🙂
5–7 points – You rarely ask God for help with your work and you don’t regulary involve Him in your career. Furthermore, your view of God is one of being a distant and uninvolved Stranger. Your communication with your heavenly Father is infrequent and not very deep.
Advice: Please realize that the Bible says that we should cast all of our burdens on God because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). God loves you and cares about all the little details in all aspects of your life including your work.
2–4 points – You sometimes ask God for help with your work but He isn’t always the first place that you turn to. You realize that God is your friend and that He wants to help you. You get caught in the busyness of your work life and sometimes forget that you have your heavenly Father that you can turn to in your time of need.
Advice: You need to make time in your workday to pray and seek your Heavenly Papa. Try to schedule appointments on your calendar to pray to God even if it is for just 1–2 minutes in the middle of your work day. Having your mind re-aligned through out your day is essential for your success and is necessary to avoid making mistakes.
0–1 points -Oh my gosh, you are super holy and ultra-spiritual! You should be nominated for a Dove Award! You have an extremely healthy and accurate view of your heavenly Father. You regularly take your time to pray and seek His counsel in your work life and other areas. If there was such a thing as a Christian rock star, that would be you!
Advice: Keep drawing closer to God and He will draw near to you.
My Results
I scored in the 2–4 section which means that I have some work to do 🙂
So, how did you score?
Don’t be shy, share your score and why you think you scored this way 🙂
bob morton says
1, 2, and 3 checked,
4, 5 and 6, not checked,
7, 1/2 checked. I think that God has given us a tools and a brain to use them, so that is the way that He helps me, but on the other hand, if it is a stubborn problem, I will ask HIm.
Guess I am weird.
Peter says
No you’re not weird at all, you’re just human. I had some of the same ones checked like you did. The main question here is, are you going to change the way you pray now?
sahar says
Hi
I’m a Muslim and I can’t understand your words. and I also hate my religion.
Because it’s one of bad religions , it’s anti-women. and I think it isn’t a Divine religion. I want to become a christian.
Peter says
Hi Sahar,
My name is Peter and I am the author of this article. Please click on the link below and send me a message on my website. I will be more than happy to answer your questions about Christianity.
Click here please http://notashamedofthegospel.com/contact/
Peter says
Sahar, what is your email address please so I can contact you, and give you the information that you need?
Mario Lagosi says
I answered No on #1, and Yes on the others. This is probably typical of most people, and working in this way is most effective to daily life.
bob morton says
1 was an iffy one for me. I do formal prayers 2 to 3 time a day. But I often will talk to God as if her was a physical person right beside me. And I do try to listen to what He speaks to me constantly. It did not change my grade however…
Peter says
So are you saying that you are satisfied with your prayer life at the moment?
bob morton says
Not really. Like I said, there are formal times when I come to God and pray for family, health, etc. I also, like I said, will talk with Him like he is physically there.
Fixing computers I have often thought a bit and said, God, what do you think about how to fix it. Sometimes a though will come in to my head that is relevant, sometimes nothing. At those times I hit the Google button and look things up. Did God not hear my request? I do not think so, I think that He wants us to rely on ourselves sometimes.
Now I said that I often think and ask God, but just as often I sometimes ask Google first. Is that a sin? I do not think so. Paul said to pray without stopping. I take that to be in an attitude like I said, ask God a question when I feel I need to. I do not ask everything of my friends, so I would not necessarily ask God everything either.
Peter Guirguis says
Those are all really good points Bob, thank you for sharing your feedback and for being so transparent 🙂
MGalloway says
Great article. The “knowledge” trap can be a big obstacle sometimes. It’s also easy to pass off issues on the job as something God couldn’t possibly help you with, especially when it comes to working with difficult people or complex problems.
Peter says
Yep, that’s exactly it M, you hit the nail on the head 🙂 Don’t you think that lawyers and doctors can fall into this trap to?
MGalloway says
Most definitely. Maybe in some ways it is also a bit of a control thing, too. Whatever the case, the Bible (for example) is deeper than Google’s search index will ever be, yet it’s a struggle for many to even read it. In an age where reading technology is undergoing tremendous innovation, that’s perplexing.
Peter Guirguis says
That’s a very good point also, many Christians very rarely open up God’s Word but almost all of them will crawl all over the web for different reasons. It shouldn’t be so 🙁
David Jones says
I understand what you are trying to portray here, but I think the logic of this argument is off. Not that I don’t think you shouldn’t seek God in your work. But He gave us a brain. And He gave us the ability to figure things out. If a doctor didn’t know how to do something, I would hope he would study to figure it out, AND ask God. But I would not trust a doctor that only prayed about something he didn’t know. I think if we come across something that would be nearly impossible to figure out, then yes, seek God. But if it a matter of just researching a subject, I don’t think that is putting God off. It’s using the brain He gave us. Just my thoughts…
Peter Guirguis says
and I totally understand where you are coming from David and the points that you make are valid. The point of this article was not to say to completely abandon research and I believe that I stated that in the sentence where I write, “I’m not saying that you should never visit Google.com ever again.” What I was trying to get at here is that there needs to be more of a balance in our lives because most of us struggle with relying on ourselves nearly 99% of the time and that’s not healthy either.
I also believe that there’s nothing wrong with praying more often first and then going to Google for the search results. I believe that God can also direct us if we seek Him first through search engines. But to never or to frequently not involve God in our work lives and to not actively seek Him during our workday I believe isn’t right either.
Bevan Kay says
I think we too often seem to neglect to ask God for things that seem trivial. For example, I am on the leadership team in my youth ministry and lately we have just been spending some time praying for trivial things as they come up. Last night at youth we ended up with 38 garbage bags full of newspaper. We prayed whilst we put them in the church bins (just three standard wheelie bins) and proceed to compress them down and all 38 fit! Also, we were on a camp and where sitting in a circle and needed to call one of the other groups but my phone didn’t have reception. So we said a quick prayer and the reception appeared straight away!
I don’t see any harm in praying what we would consider to be trivial prayers. I think it opens our eyes to how much God really looks after us. How much he does for us that we don’t even notice. I have decided to put an emphasis on being a spirit-led person who fully relies on God and by fully I mean fully. I want to seek God in everything that I do. I believe that nothing is too trivial for God!
Peter says
Amen to that Bevan! I’m so glad that you get this post. Some people read it and they just dismissed it immediately because they were like, “I’ll always depend on God more than just a search engin!”
But you were able to understand the whole point behind this post which is that we need to involve God in more areas of our lives, especially in what seems to be trivial to us.
Thanks for sharing those two testimonies, they were really encouraging! Our God is an awesome God 🙂