Do you ever think about life, what it is all about, or more specifically about your own life, why were you born? I believe that from time to time, we should take out moments to contemplate our lives.
God has a purpose for your life; do you know what it is? Do you need to take an inventory of your life to ascertain that you are consistently growing and being fruitful to see if you are living out His plan and purpose for you? On the other hand, is your life stagnant, or is it full of pleasure but headed in the wrong direction?
This article is, in the main, an extract from my book, A Better You: Towards a Meaningful, Purposeful and Fruitful Life. You can get a free-gift eBook copy of it from my website, or purchase its paperback on Amazon.
Be it in a spiritual or physical sense, I believe that the essence of life is growth, the essence of growth is maturity, and the essence of maturity is fruitfulness (a productive life). If you have come to a stage in life where you ought to be productive or fruitful, but you are not, then there is a fundamental problem. You must find out what that problem is and begin to seek solutions for any contradictions in your life.
If a child at the age of four, who does not seem to have any apparent physiological challenge, cannot walk, the parents would seek medical help. Why is this so? Because it is a contradiction of life for a child to be at that age but still cannot walk.
Where have you been, and where are you going? What is your life turning to? Ask yourself, what do I want to achieve spiritually, emotionally, relationally, intellectually, financially and materially? How do I intend to achieve this? With whom do I intend to go with throughout this journey for a purposeful, meaningful and fruitful life?
The questions above are questions you must ask yourself and review from time to time to see if you are still on course because legitimate cares and affairs of this life have a way of getting you into a routine that ultimately gets you nowhere in particular.
In other words, you must know where you are going if you are going to get there. If you do not know where you are going, you will also get there. Where? Nowhere!
If you do not determine what you want out of life, life will present you with anything it deems fit. Your life must not be a merry-go-round that starts and ends at the same spot. The merry-go-round is great-fun, but it has a very fundamental flaw, it does not get anyone anywhere. It is all motion without progress.
Besides, you must realise that even though there are different areas or compartments of your life, your life is one indivisible and integral whole. Speaking generally, the life you live at home should not be different from that which you present among friends, in church or elsewhere. If it is, it will ultimately tear you apart. We may capture the essence of maintaining an integral life in the words of Christ:
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
You cannot disregard singleness (wholeness) of life and purpose without consequences. You must have heard people say, ‘I am doing a great job at my workplace, therefore, it is nobody’s business if my marriage or family is crumbling or not.’
For such people, time lets them know, using Gandhi’s words, that “You cannot be attempting to do right in one department of life while doing wrong in another, for life is one indivisible whole.” In other words, trying to ‘succeed’ in one area of life while disregarding ‘failure’ in another translates to failure in all! It is only a matter of time before that manifests.
One more question that could come out of what Jesus is saying here, is that of who or what you worship- God or Mammon. You have to choose because you cannot serve both. You are one indivisible whole you cannot divide yourself where one part worships one, and the other part worships the other.
God is a gracious Lord. Mammon is a taskmaster that mimics the divine attribute of omnipotence- that is, it pretends a potential to achieve anything, anytime and anywhere. That is the main deception of Mammon. It is God’s chief competitor for the hearts and souls of men. However, money is best as a servant. It is attracted to those who use it well to serve them, while it ultimately destroys those who worship it.
You were wired to do well in all departments of life. You do not have to settle for just some part of it. For blessed people, ‘in ALL they do, they prosper’. Improvement and success in life must be planned to be achieved; they do not just happen.
Believe in Almighty God. He did not create you to be mediocre, but for excellence. Allow Him to guide you into making your life an integral whole.
Thank you. Do not forget to keep living, loving and learning.
References: Matthew 6:22-24, KJV. Psalms 1:3b, NLT.
Extract from: A Better You: Towards a Meaningful, Purposeful and Fruitful Life; Solomon A. Aror; Wordworth International; Copyright © 2020.