Busyness seems to be a bad word within Christian circles as it often implies doing things that cause us to avoid being with God. However, if we use Jesus’ example of busyness we find we can love God with all our heart, soul and mind and even find time to love our neighbour as God intended. Jesus put God at the centre of all He did and other activities sprung from His relationship with the Father. When God is the reason for our busyness and not another activity added to an already busy day, we will be both productive and rested.
When confronted with the charge of healing a man on the Sabbath, Jesus’ response was that both He and His Father were always working. The leaders of the time were continually busy playing religion preventing people from seeing God’s intentions while Jesus and the Father were working at pointing humanity toward the path to reconciliation and salvation. This same type of work was assigned to us by Jesus as He ascended to heaven. He told us to make disciples who loved God with all their heart, soul and mind and who also loved their neighbours as themselves; work that should keep us busy pointing those we encounter onto God’s path.
Jesus modelled the 24-hour day in which we can honour and love God. His typical day included time for sleeping, eating, resting, and fellowship, praying, worshiping, mentoring, sharing God’s truth, working (preaching, teaching and performing miracles) and even commuting to work (walking). Note the first three – sleeping, eating and resting. These are key activates that affect our ability to perform well and if they were important enough for Jesus to consider then they can be part of our daily routine. Jesus also modeled the way in which He used His 24 hours to love God. Throughout His day He did all that He could to: grow in the spirit and knowledge of the Father; live as the Father desired; share the news of the Father with others; help those in need; and worship with others.
How or when do you love God with all your soul, heart and mind? When and how do you love your neighbour? Attached to this letter is a chart suggesting how we can honour God by doing the activities Jesus did and for the same reason He did them. When you look at these activities you may note that there are some things you don’t do now but may want to incorporate them into your worship of God. Remember it is not about adding more activities to your day to say you are doing spiritual things for God. It is about refocusing your day towards God and allowing other activities to enhance your relationship with Him. To help focus your day attached to this letter is a suggestion as to how you could manage the 24 hours of your day and the 168 hours of your week around God’s work for you.
Jesus’ earthly ministry was about a relationship with the Father that involved being busy doing His work and showing Him that He loved Him with all His heart, soul and mind. We all need to be busy like Jesus. Prayer was paramount to His work and as such should be central to ours. Start by asking God to help you answer the question about where you focus your efforts. Then ask Him to help you draw your energy from Him so that your work can be about Him. We need to love the God we serve in order to serve the God we love.