Working in God's Kingdom

We live in a culture that might confuse, pursue and force some of us to make God a "spare time" activity rather than our primary purpose in life. The basic goals of life are: get an education, get a job, and perhaps get married and have a family. The majority of people's energy is spent pursuing those three things, and Christians are no exception. But it is difficult to arrange your life around God and His Kingdom when you have already made major choices concerning your education, career, and family. What most of us have never realized is the size of our role-it literally must consume our life and become the reason we exist. It cannot simply be a spare-time activity done after we get home from our "real job." God's one and only concern is that his kingdom work gets done. Jesus said that his father was always at work, and his job was to do the work of his father. Jesus also said that his "food" was to do the will of God. And God wants his only concern to be ours, too. It's clear that we are to emulate Jesus in his pursuit of God's work. Jesus said, "Do not worry about what you will eat or drink, but seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these things (food, clothing, shelter, etc.) will be given to you." We have to take seriously everything He said, including, "sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, then you can follow me," "he who seeks to save his life will lose it, but he who seeks to lose his life for my sake will find it," "deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me," These are powerful instructions that cannot possibly be carried out in just a few hours a week. Jesus is staking a claim on your whole life, and most of us have not handed it over. Perhaps we need to learn to start asking God the simple question, "how can my life help your Kingdom come?" If our career and life's purpose do not specifically and directly impact God's Kingdom, then we need to rearrange everything. Instead of asking God to do things for us and work in our lives to answer our requests, we should be asking God to simply speak, and we should simply listen. In listening, we may hear God calling us to do our part.