Mind your Kingdom business
Martha Olawale
“And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you.” 1 Thessalonian 4:11.
If I could offer a single piece of advice to all the Christians in my life, it would be “Mind your Kingdom business” and focus on your assigned role to maximize your God-given potential. The roads we tread may be dry and broken, but Christ’s affirmation in John 7:38- 39a ignites the restorative power within us. It says, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive…” Believing in Jesus uproots our old nature and births us in our new life in God. With our redemption, there is now an unstoppable flow within us, and it gives life.
The decision to follow Christ transforms us from the inside out, altering how we interact with and perceive our world. Our belief in Jesus turns the faucet of living water, once blocked by sin, into a channel of hope for people everywhere. Jesus said that because of the Holy Spirit, rivers of living water will flow from our hearts. As a result of the flow, our thoughts and words should heal, satisfy, and nourish the desert plains we walk through.
For a world full of Christians, there is too much hatred. Hopelessness has seeped its way into the hearts of many, becoming a dirty flood from which no one wants to drink. It beats against reasoning and opens the door to delusion. The noise is drowning, not sustaining, and people are buying into the illusions about the graciousness of God, even within the confines of our faith.
If we all mind our Kingdom business and live up to our call to be the source of hope, our world would be a better place. As Christ's followers, within us is a well that flows from the throne of grace, and it is that grace that empowers us to love beyond what people can fathom. We stand for what is right in love, speak for what is right in love, and live for what is right in love because we are defined by love.
The world is busy attending to worldly matters, which do not affect the Kingdom of God. However, when we focus on Kingdom matters, it has a profound impact on the world. Ours is to build, not tear down and fight for Christ’s preeminence, not man’s delusions. By narrowing our focus solely to embrace our comfort in this world, we will miss the mark. If our earthly preferences outweigh our divine calling, we will also miss the mark, and it could cloud the magnitude of what we stand to gain beyond the shores of life.
Heaven is our home, and the Earth is merely a transit point. We are agents of hope here, and our lives should be the light through which people filter godliness. When we remember this, we will not get caught up in the demands of the road that leads to eternity but live daily in honor of it.
