In the end, what we do for God and for others, especially how we help them on our common journey to eternity is what truly matters.
A life of significance must therefore mean a life of service to God and to man. If it comes with the recognition of our peers or the world, we must embrace it; but that should not be our focus.
Moses the man of God introduced to us in the book of Exodus, went through three stages to become the meek leader God desired for His people: At age 40, he was as proud and as arrogant as only a Prince of Egypt with all the knowledge and influence that position brought, could be.
At 80, he was as humble as only a shepherd boy who looked after sheep not even his own could be.
From age 80 until he turned 120, he became a leader subject only to God, completely surrendered to carrying out the will of his Master, and to fulfilling the trust he had been given.
How do you see yourself today? Stripped of all that the world calls achievement and success, how significant is your life?
Jesus Christ our Lord needs people to work with, and they are those who measure their significance by the extent to which they carry out His business.
Am I then saying that the only way to have significance in the sight of God is when we preach the gospel to others, as in the holding of evangelistic sessions? Most certainly I am not. But I am saying that your skills and talents, when put to the Master’s use, are multiplied, and will certainly earn you true and lasting significance in the grand scheme of things.
In the Book of Esther, Queen Esther who by a divine arrangement had become queen at a time when the very existence of the people of Israel was in peril, was given a message by her uncle Mordecai. I would like to reproduce the entire text of Esther 4:13-14:
“Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
How do you know if you have come to your position for such a time as this, when God is making up His army, and placing its soldiers in strategic places to achieve a desired impact?
In 1 Peter 2:9, Christians are described as “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, [God’s] own special people”.
The reason for this honour is revealed in the next sentence: “…that [we] may proclaim the praises of Him who called [us] out of darkness into His marvelous light”.
How do we proclaim the praises of God in public life, in our businesses and in the exercise of our professions?
Our Lord Jesus provides the context for what we are required to do in this regard, as Christians who find ourselves not in the formal pulpit, but in public service, or in the corporate world:
We are the salt of the world, and like salt enhances the taste of food, we are intended to give meaning to life; we are also to positively affect people within the sphere of our influence, to purify our environment, and to preserve all that is good by living right.
We are the light of the world, intended to illuminate the places we are stationed in life by bringing godly qualities into the execution of our duties as managers of God’s resources in a world that lies under the control of its prince, the devil.
We are to shine as stars, and by our lifestyles, to bring heaven to the earth by ensuring that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven, and by it all, to work with the Lord to draw souls to God.
How do we do this?
