Getting the Most Out of Your Life
“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
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