“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, . . . Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” -Philippians 3:8-14

Reading the words of the apostle Paul, its clear that He wanted to get the most out of his life. That is, Paul wanted his life to have the absolute maximum impact for God and His kingdom.

Today, many Christians will perhaps claim that they are seeking to live for God, and wish to live their lives for the maximum benefit of God, but in all practicality, we shortchange God in a number of ways.

A example from the farm

In getting the most out of our lives, one way to look at it is from the standpoint of a yield: how much usable crop will our life yield? How much fruit will we bear in our life?

“And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” -Matthew 13:7-8

Think about how a farmer behaves toward his field, and his crop, and compare it to your own life.

Did a farmer ever say, “I think it would be best to just let all the plants grow together, weeds, corn, thistles, flowers, and whatever else happens to spring up”? Of course not. He purposefully plants crops that he knows will result in a higher yield, and avoids those things that will be a detriment to his crops. And so it is with us, that not all actions and behaviors are equal, but there are some things that are better than another.

Look at this contrast between fruitful vines and fig trees, and that which is not fruitful:

“And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.” -Hosea 2:12

Notice God says that He will make the fig trees and vines into a forest—that is, He will make them desolate, and cause the fruitful things to be overgrown and become wild.

Has a farmer ever sought to harvest a crop out of a wild forest? Is this the best way to get a large and useful crop? Of course not. It would be hard to pick out the good fruit from the bad fruit, and the growing would not be optimized. There would be all sorts of other random plants and weeds that would be competing for sunlight, water, and nutrients from the soil. There would be no organized rows to walk up and down, and things in general would not be well maintained.

Yet for all the chaos that is found in a wild forest, and all of the advantages of having organized rows of productive crops, we as Christians live our lives much closer to a wild forest than we do a farm field or an orchard. We let all sorts of random and distracting things come into our lives, and we have little priority for the things of God. We have no over-arching plan or goal, and we simply hope that somehow God will make something of our life.

Instead, we ought to follow the purposeful example of the farmer. We ought to:

1.) Identify what our calling in the Lord is: what are we put on this earth to do? What is our purpose? In essence, what type of “crop” are we called to grow.

2.) Under the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, formulate a plan that would maximize this yield. What do we need to succeed? What type of equipment to grow the crops, what type of seeds, how close together can they be planted, how often should they be watered? These things certainly will not come by accident. Allow God to show us how we can be used to accomplish His will, and bring forth much fruit.

3.) Find and remove any obstacles that are in the way of achieving a great yield. This is where many Christians falter: they have the best of intentions to accomplish great things for God, and yet they strangely refuse to give up the selfish little pleasures of life that are holding them back from the selfless work that God has for them. Most weeds are small, and hardly noticed; yet they are numerous, and choke out the good crops. Or perhaps the crop is choked out with beautiful flowers or other inferior crops that have nothing to do with God’s will. Satan may entice us to plant “good” crops when God wants us to cultivate only the “best” crops according to His will. To do merely “good” things instead of doing the best thing—God’s will—is to wrest against God and His kingdom; it is to make ourselves gods, and to rebel against the authority and kingship of Jesus Christ.

“For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” -1 Corinthians 3:11-15

“A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name.” -Malachi 1:6a

Throughout Scripture, God uses many earthly examples to show us how we relate to Him. Much like Jesus’ parables, we see the Lord’s words given to Malachi for His people, giving them a visible (though never perfect) representation of true religion.

Malachi gives two such examples:

A father and son – Despite any modern corruptions of our views of fatherhood, God specifically says that as a spiritual father, He ought to be honored. We ought not to view Him too lowly, nor disrespect Him or take Him for granted. The priests in Malachi’s times were treating God as an almost indifferent and mechanical force: one that would not mind if they shortchanged Him or sacrificed flawed or blemished sacrifices.

A master and servant - Taking the example even one step further, and removing the familial element, God compares Himself to a master dealing with His servant, and ought to be therefore feared and respected. Sometimes, God may ask us to obey Him even if we do not understand or agree with what He wants us to do. Yet the people in Malachi’s time offered sacrifices that were so flawed that it would have been an insult even to earthly governors. God tells His people that He is of an infinitely greater authority, and ought to be shown utmost honor; though the seemingly faithless gave no regard to Him.

“But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.” -Malachi 1:14

“And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.” -Zechariah 9:16

Here’s a helpful picture that Scripture paints for us about our relationship to God: we are as stones in the crown of the king.

Jewels in the King's Crown

Just knowing this ought to teach us several lessons about Christian life:

• We ought to seek to bring glory to our King.

• We ought not to give our talents and glory to another.

• We ought to keep ourselves pure, if not for our own sake, then for the one who has bought us, and takes pleasure in us.

• We ought to remember that we are an accessory to the Lord, we bring glory to God, and are not in and of ourselves the object of glory.

• Any attractiveness or glory that we get for ourselves ought to be laid at the feet of Jesus, and our reputation ought to be an arrow that points to our Lord.

“The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” -Revelation 4:10-11

“A frog would leap from a throne of gold into a puddle.” -Publilius Syrus

And just as a frog has no true appreciation of the fine things of this world, but would prefer a dirty puddle to a golden throne, so too is the sinner before God.

The sinner does not appreciate the Almighty, nor does he seek to be in His presence, but would rather hop down from such lofty things into the lowly puddles of his own self-centered life.

Men love darkness, rather than light, because their deeds are evil, and wish to remain in darkness. Yet the man who has had his eyes opened to the truth, and has humbled himself before the Lord, will appreciate God’s goodness and value, and seek after Him as that golden throne.

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.” -Psalm 27:4

“Therefore it is come to pass, that as he cried, and they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the LORD of hosts:” -Zechariah 7:13

We see an instance where God’s people cried unto Him, and He did not answer them. Yet, we somehow think that God is unjust for this: yet it ought to be said rather that God is full of mercy and longsuffering, and does not repay us even the tenth of what our unfaithfulness deserves.

Nevertheless, we see here, and in other places in Scripture as well, where God’s people have continually turned their backs to God, and have gone in their own ways, and have chosen to themselves other “gods” to follow. “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” (Zechariah 7:11). And when trouble came, they expected the true God—Jehovah—to hear their voices and deliver them from trouble; yet in all their thoughts and actions, they had ignored Him, and sought after their own selfish desires.

“The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation.” -Judges 10:12-14

God has promised to deliver us in our time of trouble, yet we ought not to expect to live in complete rebellion and disgrace against God, and still expect Him to bail us out whenever we wish, as if He were a genie of some sort. The Bible clearly states that if we make the Lord our God, (and conduct our lives in a manner that reflects this, and acknowledges His authority), then we can rely upon Him to deliver us in our time of need.

“Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee. When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers. Thou givest thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother’s son. These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.” -Psalm 50:14-23

“God looks at the clean hands, not the full ones.” -Publilius Syrus

This is to say, that God has created all things, and has no need for us to “give” Him anything, which would show us to have “full” hands. In one of the psalms, we read in Scripture how God doesn’t need an animal sacrifice because He is lacking anything:

“I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.” -Psalm 50:9-12

Yet with a free will, we do have something that God delights in, and that is a heart that is obedient to Him. “Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22 ).

The third verse of Rock of Ages speaks of empty hands as well:

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

“Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” -Psalm 24:3-4

“Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.” -Haggai 1:7

In the book of Haggai, we read of the prophet’s message to the people: consider your ways. And just what did God mean when He said this? First, some background:

God had given the people a charge to rebuild the temple of the Lord, and they were dragging their feet and thought that it wasn’t the right time to do the Lord’s work. They hesitated, and the rebuilding of the temple was neglected.

As a result of their lethargy, God sent inexplicable poverty and failure into the lives of His people, to get them to take notice of their rebellion.

“Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” -Haggai 1:6

And it was this—this chastisement and correction from the Lord—that Haggai was talking about, in trying to steer God’s people back into their work. God was saying: consider what you are doing, and what the outcome has been. And yet, for all that God had afflicted them, the people still had not taken notice: they hadn’t put two and two together.

“I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.” -Haggai 2:17

Finally, after all of these chastisements were not getting through to the people, God rose up a prophet, Haggai, which told them plainly of their rebellion and their neglect of God’s house.

Haggai spelled things out very clearly, and showed the people that their current miseries were not just random happenings, but that there was a clear purpose from God:

“Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.” -Haggai 1:9-10

Haggai also expresses the desires of God, and shows the people the project that God has for them: the one that they have been avoiding. “Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD” (Haggai 1:8).

A message for today: consider your ways

Even today, I believe that God works in a very similar way in a Christian’s life as He did in the life of the nation of Israel. When we neglect to do God’s will—if we are truly born again—God will correct us and sent things into our life to make us take note of our wanderings.

“For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” -Hebrews 12:6-7

Perhaps there is something in our present circumstance where God is placing His finger upon us, and gently telling us, “consider your ways.” We ought not to continue on in ignorance and give no regard to the Lord’s promptings; but our troubles ought to give us a pause in our life, and make us stop and give consideration to the path of our feet.

Where did we go off course? At what point did we diverge from the Lord’s will? And, how do we get back on the right track?

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” -Proverbs 3:5-12