1 Thessalonians 2:19,20
“After all, who is our hope, our joy, our crown of boasting, if it is not you yourselves in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? You are indeed our glory and our joy.”
There are many things in our lives that we’re excited about; things we take pride in. We can tell what those things are by our conversation. It’ll be what we talk about.
God has given us so many good things in this world. He created work. Adam and Eve were to till the ground and tend the Garden. Ecclesiastes 2:24 speaks of the contentment we are to gain from our work.
We also have our hobbies and interests. These are good. However, we are to include The Lord within them. Colossians 3:17 says, “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” This is part of what it means to make Him our lord.
How do we include The Lord in our lives? We are to pray Jesus’ pray, “not my will, but Thine be done”, Luke 22:42. We give our day to Him. We will have our plans, but we ask for His guidance and welcome Him to interrupt them whenever He chooses.
We are also to spend time serving others. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.” Paul was an apostle. His gift was in building movements. He would go to a town, share the gospel, gain many followers and keep in contact with them by letters and visitations.
God has gifted us, as well. He wants us to use those gifts in service to others. If our gift isn’t known, pray and ask others what they think it is. Begin to follow those ideas. It may take a while.
We’ll know our service is a good fit when we’re excited about it. We will talk about it, as Paul did. We’ll begin to pray for those we are serving.
Lord, thank You for the good things You’ve given us in this world. Help us to make serving You and others part of it.