Doing Life With God -- Part 2

As a child I remember thinking that pleasing God seemed to be connected somehow to numbers in the church where I grew up.  A sign that displayed the Sunday School and church service attendance and the amount of offering received each Sunday was prominently posted as if to say this is how well we’re serving God. 

Later, in my early adult years as a follower of Jesus I recall hearing a frequent theme from sermons and articles I read that carried the message: Get busy for God.  These always had the effect of making me feel guilty because I probably was not doing enough for the Lord and needed to get motivated if I really wanted my life to count for eternity and be obedient to Him

During the years that followed, busyness became the hallmark of my wife Sherril’s and my lifestyle.  We attended nearly every church function, usually carrying at least some degree of responsibility, led and/or hosted a couple of weekly home Bible studies, entertained visiting missionaries, led men’s and women’s fellowship groups, taught Sunday School classes, led Vacation Bible School, worked as youth leaders, and did many other church-related extracurricular activities.  Many of these responsibilities were concurrent.  All the while, I worked a demanding full-time engineering management job and Sherril ran a good sized Sunday School program.  In addition, we were raising three active boys and trying to attend all their events and do family outings.

While no one could say we weren’t busy working for the Lord, I wonder if it would have been equally true to say that we were always working with the Lord.  Thankfully, the Lord gave me the opportunity some years after our level of activity had peaked to lead a class in a Bible study series called Experiencing God by Henry Blackaby.  What an eye-opening experience!

I learned a life-changing lesson from this study:  God does not ask us to go out and create activity just to be busy for Him.  That can lead to frustration and burnout.  Because it is “our” activity for God, it can deceptively turn into the serious sin of spiritual pride, becoming proud of all the activity we’re doing.  Instead, God asks us to become aware of where He is already at work and to join with Him there.  It’s His work, not ours.  By His grace we just get to participate with Him. 

When you think about it, it’s really prideful and presumptuous to think we could do anything for the Lord.  And, how liberating it is to know that because it is His work, He is responsible for the results!  We are responsible only for doing what He’s called us to do.

When God called Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, He was already at work there among Israel’s leaders and the Egyptians setting the stage for the great Exodus.  When He calls you and me to reach out to someone, He’s already been working in that person’s life and invites us to participate in that work. 

When Jesus gave what we call the Great Commission to His disciples, and ultimately to all His followers, to take the Gospel message into all the world, He was placing a huge responsibility on us frail human instruments – an impossible task.  But He was not (and is not) sending us out alone, for He promised to be with us always.

So then, doing life with God is not about living our lives as normal and seeking to include Him in what we are doing, even if it’s a “spiritual” activity.  Instead, we must honestly confess where we have been wrong in trying to create spiritual activity for Him and not earnestly seeking His guidance. 

Of course, it will require some action our part to discover where He is at work.  I don’t think He intends for us just to sit at home on the couch and wait for a revelation!  But if we sincerely ask Him to make us aware of where He is at work and are open to whatever He shows us, He will reveal it and invite us to join Him.

On the seventh day of creation God rested from all His work, but since the fall of man He has been continually at work to redeem us.  Jesus said, “My Father is always working, and so am I” (John 5:17), and the psalmist wrote, “Indeed, He who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121:4).