Colossians 3:24

Paul wrote this letter to a young church in Colossae, a city in what is now western Turkey. In this section, he is addressing people who work under others — a principle that applied directly to servants in the ancient Roman world, where slavery was a common institution, but that extends to anyone who labors for another person. His point is striking: even when your earthly employer does not see your effort or reward it fairly, you are ultimately working for Christ himself. Paul uses the word 'inheritance' deliberately — not wages you earn through performance, but a gift given to you because of whose family you belong to. The true audience for your work, the one who sees everything, is Christ.

Lord, forgive me for the times I have worked for applause that never came and grown bitter when it did not. Remind me today that you see every hidden act of faithfulness. Let me work with my whole heart — not to earn something, but because I already belong to you. Amen.

The meeting where you did all the work and someone else got the credit. The project that drained you completely and went unacknowledged. The thankless task nobody noticed because the only reason it was even a task is that you showed up. Paul wrote this verse to people whose situation was far more severe — people with no legal right to choose their labor. And yet his word to them is surprisingly, almost stubbornly, freeing. The audience for your work is not who you think it is. When you send the email nobody replies to, fold the laundry nobody thanks you for, or show up for the role that makes you invisible — there is a witness. Not a passive one. One who promises not a performance review but an inheritance: the kind that is not earned but given, because you belong. That reframe does not make hard work easier. But it changes who you are doing it for. And that changes everything about how you carry even the small, invisible labor of your life.