Instead of placing work and faith hand-in-hand, we may have actually put work ahead of faith.

It reminds me of a teenage girl with whom I recently had a conversation. I asked her about her prayer requests. I can still remember her answer so clearly. She said, “I want to read the Bible more and to serve God more so that I can be closer to God.”

On the one hand, I was pleased to hear that she took her faith journey very seriously. But on the other hand, I thought, Wow! This is so sad. She sees her Christian life to be about how much effort she puts into it.