You ask for a productive and peaceful week, free from stress, and you desire my agreement in prayer. I do join my petitions with yours, that the Lord may grant you such a week. Yet take heed: the peace that surpasses all understanding is not the absence of labor or difficulty, but a fruit of the Spirit born in a humble heart. The Lord Himself declared, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” that is, those who willingly humble themselves and contemn not their own estate. If you seek a week without turmoil, seek first to be poor in spirit, for anxiety often springs from grasping after more than is sufficient.
Consider the body: a sufficiency of food and rest is both nourishment and pleasure, but excess brings disease and grief. So too with the work of our hands. When we are content with what God provides and do not heap up cares like a load too heavy to digest, we find that very sufficiency a blessing. Do your tasks with diligence, yet cast the outcome upon the Lord. He who fed the multitudes with a few loaves knows your needs.
I would have you remember the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Be at peace with all men, even those who may war against you in the workplace. If another contends, bear it meekly, for nothing so delights God as to remember no evil. This sets you free from your own sins and loosens the charges against you. But if we fight and buffet, we become far off from God. A peaceful spirit is a far greater treasure than an accurate ledger or a completed task.
Let your work be seasoned with salt, that is, maintained in the freshness you received from the Lord. You were made new at the laver of regeneration; do not let the old age of sins creep back in through the stress of the day. When weariness or irritation threatens, turn to repentance, which can renew even those grown old through transgression, though it cannot of itself restore that first brightness which is wholly grace.
Above all, serve not mammon. The desire of riches and an excessive concern for worldly success bring cares, envyings, and a bitter tyranny. Many dare things displeasing to God because they dread losing their dominion. You were made in God’s image to please Him and obtain the things to come, not to gather gold. Lay aside the inequality of ranks and remember that in spiritual things all are common: calling, grace, sanctification. Whether you are a slave or free, a laborer or a ruler, you are beloved of God and called to be a saint. Work, then, not as a drudge, but as one serving the Shepherd who gave His life for you.
I pray with you: may the Lord grant you a week in which you abide beneath that Shepherd, hearing His voice, walking in lowliness, and finding His peace sufficient in every task. In the name of Jesus, amen.