I think one thing in a Christian life we concern ourselves about is bearing fruit. The Bible says each Christian bears 30, 60, or 100 from the parable of the sower. Fruit isn’t literal fruit, but spiritual results with Christ being the vine. In Christ as we act and love towards others, we help out the spirituality of others and this is fruit. Another thing we do is help others out with charity, this is fruit also. The fruit of the spirit is life and love for others. We should be focused on not just having a mission, but the mission to be fruitful.
A hedonistic person seeks to maximize pleasure on Earth. A hedonistic person feels they should try and maximize their time maximizing pleasure. A Christian realizes the way to maximize pleasure is to spend one’s entire life in servitude to God. God will give us what we need and desire even if we’re strictly serving him and helping others. A hedonistic person seeks to maximize pleasure, but they don’t realize they’re minimizing it because they lose out on so many rewards in the afterlife. On the same train of thought, a Christian maximizes pleasure because while this Earthly sojourn of servitude can be difficult and and unpleasant, God will open the gates to paradise for all those who love his son Jesus Christ so much that they live for him. Jesus died for us, so we should live for him. It takes some time for a Christian to mature in their walk to think of the next question though: How do I maximize my servitude for God?
We all know the commands Jesus gave to us: Love God with all our heart, and love our neighbor with all our heart as we love ourselves. Loving your neighbor is being kind to them, but also helping them through their struggles as well. We see that buying the poor food is a good thing to do, so is helping widows and orphans. Just serving and prayerfully letting the Holy Spirit guide you in the way to serve is one of the best ways to serve. Part of finding the best place to serve though might fall into analytical observations though of how much fruit you think you’re producing.
Ecclesiastes1:1 Invest your money in foreign trade, and one of these days you will make a profit. 2 Put your investments in several places – many places even – because you never know what kind of bad luck you are going to have in this world. I believe in the wisdom of Solomon that this scripture was meant for more than just monetary wealth. We should toil to help many different people in many different ways. By investing in different ways for the kingdom of Heaven, we’re unlikely to come up in Heaven merely escaping the fire, but with structure build on the foundation of Jesus Christ. We are saved by Jesus Christ alone, but there is allusion in the Bible that there are different rewards for serving. You can simply serve and be good with all you are and have no expectation of reward, but you’ll still get reward :) 1 Corinthians 3:11 For God has already placed Jesus Christ as the one and only foundation, and no other foundation can be laid. 12 Some will use gold or silver or precious stones in building on the foundation; others will use wood or grass or straw. 13 And the quality of each person’s work will be seen when the Day of Christ exposes it. For on that Day fire will reveal everyone’s work; the fire will test it and show its real quality. 14 If what was built on the foundation survives the fire, the builder will receive a reward. 15 But if your work is burnt up, then you will lose it; but you yourself will be saved, as if you had escaped through the fire.
I’m saying all this so you realize that our works on this Earth, though sacrificial and we might not end up with any Earthly benefit, there is reward in Heaven. The fools of this Earth are those who see no lasting value to love, and build up for themselves empires of wealth and Earthly power. God’s wisdom has made this idea foolishness. The very thing of love which greedy people look to with scorn is the only thing that lasts forever into Heaven! How then do we maximize our time for servitude on this Earth? The first thing I look at is that we should balance work with rest and play. If we’re a strong person, we can work constantly at helping others, but that is for the few. Most of us do good if we have refreshing relaxation and hobbies to look forward to between our work. So balance work and play, because if you burn out completely, you’re not maximizing your work across your lifetime! The next thing I say is that we should seek for employment. If we’re clergy, we just serve and do well in it without requiring a large pay. For the rest of us, we work in a morally acceptable job, and use our wealth to support our lives. We should live frugally and then give our excess to help the poor. This should be just about everyone’s general outlook on life. How do you balance a savings account and giving? Each one of us does this differently with a different amount of faith. I would say those of us with families save more in our savings than those of us people without families. Also there isn’t much wrong in investing a great deal into the future where you can give more. Just be sure to give at least a trickle though, or you’ll be like the man in scripture who built bigger barns but gave nothing during his life.
With our free time, we should be cordial to friends and family. If we have any discord, we should seek to remedy that if we’re able to. The world is difficult to love, as some will not be kind back to you. If you do not have a good family, still love them even if they don’t love you.
There are all sorts of missions or volunteer work to do. Look around in your area for what you can help out on. If you can’t find volunteer work in your area, try an online ministry. Go around the Internet in games, twitter, and forums telling people that God loves them, Jesus is LORD. Just be prepared for all sorts of backlash. Jesus said if we’re insulted for telling people about the Good News, that we’re rewarded. He also says if we’re rejected one place, move onto another place. So don’t worry if you can’t get through to everyone.
Finally I am getting to where I got the idea for this article. It has been a few months since our last update. In a way I didn’t want to write stuff to dilute what we already have. But I forgot we might have repeat readers who like new content. I feel I should write more article for this website because of something very important. God approved of our first book, and because he gave us a miracle, that is a sign of approval. Any time someone gets a sign of approval from God, I believe he or she should continue to labor in that area. It doesn’t happen often, but it is a sign of bearing fruit.
I pray you labor your best for God and people. I pray you find a niche where you can serve and that God lets you know it is where you should be. If you don’t find a niche, try helping everyone you can across your journey. By wisely investing in many different places, you are more likely to get some reward. And if you are given a sign in one of the places, or feel you’re really doing a good thing, stick with it and work harder in that area.
God bless you,
Jim