How do we live for Christ and make a living?
When most people think of living for Christ, they automatically think about a priest or a monk or a preacher. They think of someone they are not. They think of someone with plenty of time on their hands and plenty of knowledge.
Jesus called his disciples and guess what? They were not seminarians or theologians. They were fisherman. They were tax collectors. They were sinners. Nowhere near perfect. They were regular people. Like you and me.
Where do we get this idea that to follow Jesus we must be a professionally trained, academically gifted person? There is a disconnect between what Scripture teaches and what is being practiced today.
God never intended for us to think that only the most respected among us would be His followers. He went out of his way to break that mindset. Throughout the Bible we see God calling those who are broken. Those with messed up pasts. Those who the world has given up on. He calls sinners.
So, if this is the case, what are we to do with that? Should everyone just quit their jobs and start preaching on the street corner? Not hardly. Some of us certainly should, the Lord knows we need more street preachers, but that’s not the only way we serve God.
And by serving God daily, God is the one who changes us. He is the one in charge of our sanctification. We change because of the work being doing in us. God doesn’t leave you where he found you. He also doesn’t expect us to just continue sinning because we are now under his grace. He does expect change and growth in our lives. And He will bring it to pass. We just need to keep our eyes on Him.
So how do we serve Him?
We serve God best by following Him daily. What does that mean? Let’s look at three different ways we can follow God daily.
- First, start your day with Him. If you are anything like me, when you wake up, your mind goes in 50 million different directions. You start thinking about work. You start checking off your to-do list. You make plans. But, how often do you start your day with God? This has been one of my goals. I like to start each day with Scripture reading and silent meditation. I use an app on my smartphone called ReadScripture. It’s a free app and easy to use. I’d highly recommend it. I’ll put a link in the notes below. I have found that when I spend the first part of my day centering myself on God, I look for opportunities to serve him throughout the day. But on the days that I let everything else get in the way, I don’t open my day with him, I easily miss many of the opportunities that He puts in front of me.
- Second, you do actually have to look for opportunities. The Bible says, ask and it will be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened. Have you asked for opportunities to serve God? Have you sought those out? I have trouble with this from time to time. I am quite frequently worried about being over ambitious. That people will think I’m trying to build myself up to be this great thing or something like that. I have found that this is usually just an excuse to continue to do nothing. God expects more from me. He expects me to seek…to knock…to ask.
- And finally, cast all your fears upon the Lord. I think fear of man is the single greatest thing stopping us in the workplace from serving God. We fear losing our jobs. We fear rejection. We fear the unknown. With the political climate in America today, can you blame us? I mean it’s not popular to admit that you are Christian in the workplace. It’s frowned upon if you mention that you are in favor of outlawing abortion. But sometimes, I think we use this as a cover. So instead of simply loving our neighbor, or co-worker, as God commands us to, we blame politics. Let me put is simply – if your neighbor is in need, help them, serve them, love them, no matter what the political fallout is. You cannot allow fear to control you. Overcome your fears by taking risks. The God we serve is not a safe God. He requires radical obedience. He requires us to step out in faith to follow Him.
This is just a start and I plan to continue this conversation in the weeks to come. What are some ways that you serve God daily? Feel free to comment below and join the conversation.
everydayjesus.net 