SERVING & ENJOYING

A thought that is really challenging me at the moment is this (bare with me here, because I will definitely get to the point)- Jesus didn't give us our lives so that we could just 'enjoy them'. Yes, initially God created us to just enjoy them with Him, as we see in the fact that He created a garden for Adam and Eve to enjoy in His own presence. This was a life of perfect enjoyment and the experience of what God had intended for His creation- to enjoy uninterrupted joy, pleasure, peace and goodness with no need for anything. However, when sin came we know that humanity's relationship with God was virtually destroyed, creation fell, and so a great need then arose: the salvation of souls in order to restore that relationship. From here God would make a covenant with His own people that He chose (Israel), but also with a long-term view of bringing salvation to the Gentiles as well. So while, in Adam, we/humanity rejected God, He chose us and mankind again, and He obviously plans to save many more before the end. In light of this, our relationship with God in the garden went from being something where we could just 'enjoy' our lives with God, to something that now also includes striving after that for which Jesus strove during His lifetime- to save souls and build His Church (build His Church meaning encouraging the saints, teaching and equipping one another and giving what the Spirit gives us to give others, in whatever capacity we feel the Spirit is leading us to do these things). These were two purposes that Adam and Eve originally never had while in the garden because they weren't needed. Now there IS A NEED to live for these TWO PURPOSES. Now the fundamental purpose of our lives; that which undergirds and drives everything should not only be working in order to survive and so that we might have a enjoyable physical garden (e.g. house, home, family, friends, and an enjoyment of God's physical creation) but living and working in order to accomplish those two things. This doesn't mean that enjoying God, dwelling with Him and communing with Him should be forgotten, in fact this should obviously still be the most fundamentally important purpose of our lives. But it does mean that if we are not doing those two things: aiming to reach the lost and helping build God's Church, all we are concerned about in our lives is enjoying them in a very selfish sense. We are saying to God, "God, it does not matter that men don't know you and that they are lost and broken. And it doesn't matter if they never hear about you or the Gospel either. It doesn't matter that the Church isn't encouraged or built up, or that they do not really understand who you are, what you love and hate, or that they aren't really being fruitful in their lives for your sake. It doesn't matter that they don't understand their callings or what the gifts of the Spirit are, and it doesn't matter if they don't understand what love is or how it operates. It doesn't matter what the hope of their calling is, or what the dangers of sin are, and it doesn't matter if they don't understand who the enemy is or what his schemes are." We are saying to God, "All that really matters is that I enjoy my life for what I can and what I want to get out of it. I'll do the bare minimum; I'll work to survive and to build my physical garden, and I'll enjoy spending time with you, but it won't bring any fruit for the TWO PURPOSES THAT ARE MOST DEAR TO YOUR HEART.

If we are honest with ourselves, myself included, we often live more for our own enjoyment than for Christ and His will and work. We may try and justify it all we want for where we are right now in our lives, but all that really matters is asking ourselves these two simple questions for how we are living/serving RIGHT NOW IN THE MOMENT WE'RE IN: "How are we helping His people and His Church and how are we reaching the lost?" Yes, we need to work, and that is good! That obviously is serving Christ and bringing fruit, but is it bringing fruit for those two purposes just mentioned? If not, there's more that needs to be done! No matter who we are, we've been called to those two things, because much of the world is still the same as many still have broken relationships with Christ and do not know Him. Similarly, His people are needing constant encouragement to continue to follow and serve Him, and are needing the gifts of the Spirit and the ministry of such things in order to grow in their knowledge of Him and His ways and in the hope of His calling.

While we shall one day live a life of perfect enjoyment with the perfect world He'll create, that day is not yet. Yes, it is a good hope to have within our hearts, but we are not called to live that life just yet. There is work to be done! There is a calling to achieve! There is a lost world out there! There is a Church that needs strengthening and that is needing to grow and be equipped! There is a Church that needs to know God and His way if it is to itself be fruitful! If we are only living to survive and to build our own physical garden of fleshly enjoyment in this life, we are living selfishly, lazily (In the Bible God calls the lazy servant the wicked servant! (Matt 25v26)), disobediently and we are burying our gifts and talents in the grounds, and that is an extremely serious thing. We are also not honouring Christ's desires and His sacrifice for us. Christ Himself gave up His life and died for us and humanity for the purposes previously mentioned, and shall we not care about this!? Will this not move or motivate us?! Will we remain indifferent to those purposes for which He served His whole life and suffered and died for?! If we live for ourselves, we in fact do all those things. But while the Spirit may be rebuking us here, myself included, He is also spurring and encouraging us! In His grace He has forgiven us for all our shortcomings and failings in His service, and now we have a great opportunity to not live for ourselves but for Him who raised us, and this is what we're called to! Christ loves us, His people and the world. And He wants us love Him, not only in abiding in and with Him, but by being fruitful for Him. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the good things and good blessings God gives us, but we, like Jesus, are called to always be about our Father's business, and His blessings are never designed to hinder or stop this, but rather encourage it all the more!

2 Cor 5v14: 'For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.'