Who do I live for?

Picture taken at the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch / Gilbert, AZ 

I live for myself

What can I do next to be happy?  What can I do next to attract people’s attention to myself? How do I satisfy my needs? What about me?

This is my life, my resources and my time.

I live for God

What can I do next to make others happy? What can I do next to attract people’s attention to God? How do I serve others? What about them?

My life is God’s life, my resources are God’s resources and my time is God’s time. “To be what he wants me to be, to do what he wants me to do, to avoid what he hates.”

If I really think about it

I find that it is very easy for me to give my life to God in prayer because in real life I am living for myself.  I give my tithe but use the rest of my resources for myself.  I go to church on Sabbath but do with the rest of the week what I think will make me happy.  Perhaps my own happiness should not be my ultimate goal.  Perhaps the Pathfinders’ pledge should still be my pledge.  Did I ever really understood its meaning?

“To be a servant of God and a friend to man.” 

How much of my resources am I putting on hold to serve others? How much of my time am I putting on hold to serve God?  Is what I want and my own happiness getting in the way?

 

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” Matthew 10:39, Matthew 16:24-25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24

I will put this so called life on hold to serve others because I have not forgotten the promise that real life is still to come.  My ultimate goal should not be my own happiness but instead it should be to serve God and Humanity.  To lead others to find the hope of a new heaven and a new earth where there is no more pain or sadness. What I need is the mind of a pure servant. This requires a change of heart, new motives, new desires, and a new purpose.  This is very hard to do……………….on my own. God knows this and has provided a solution.

 "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws." Ezekiel 36: 25-27

 

In the end I believe that we would find true joy in pursuing God’s will and the happiness of others.