Build Your Life Around Jehovah’s Service
1 Jesus likened his hearers to two kinds of builders. One built his way of life on the rock-mass of obedience to Christ and was able to withstand the storms of opposition and tribulation. The other built on the sand of selfish disobedience and was unable to stand when pressure came. (Matt. 7:24-27) Living in this conclusion of the system of things, we experience many storms of adversity. On the horizon the dark clouds of the great tribulation are gathering rapidly. Will we endure to the end with our faith intact? (Matt. 24:3, 13, 21) Much depends on how we are building our lives now. Thus, it is urgent to ask ourselves, ‘Am I solidly building my Christian life around obedient service to God?’
2 What does it mean to build our lives around Jehovah’s service? It means making Jehovah the very center of our lives. It involves focusing on the Kingdom as our main concern. It entails obeying God in all the activities of our daily lives. It requires pouring our heart into our personal, family, and congregational study of the Bible and into our field ministry, making these our priorities. (Eccl. 12:13; Matt. 6:33) Such an obedient course results in a rock-solid faith, which will not collapse in the face of any storms of adversity that may strike.
3 It is a pleasure to see millions of people confidently building their lives and their hopes for the future around service to God, even as Jesus did. (John 4:34) They adhere to a consistent schedule of theocratic activities and enjoy rich blessings as a result. One mother explained how she and her husband successfully reared their two sons to serve Jehovah: “We filled our lives with the truth—going to all the conventions, preparing for and attending the meetings, and making field service a regular part of our lives.” Her husband added: “The truth is not part of our life, it is our life. Everything else revolves around it.” Have you likewise set Jehovah’s service as the top priority in your family?
4 Devise a Workable Weekly Schedule: Jehovah’s organization helps us to follow a good spiritual routine by arranging five meetings a week. Christians who are building their lives around the worship of Jehovah arrange their secular and family affairs in such a way as to attend all these vital meetings. They do not allow matters of lesser importance to interfere with their regular attendance.—Phil. 1:10; Heb. 10:25.
5 Mature Christians recognize that just as it is important to have regular meals at certain times each day, so it is vital to make a definite schedule for personal and family study, including preparation for the meetings. (Matt. 4:4) Could you set aside at least a 15- or 20-minute period each day for personal study? The key is not to let other things encroach on the time set aside for study. Make it a useful habit. This may require rising earlier each morning than you do now. The 17,000 members of the worldwide Bethel family rise early in the morning to have a discussion of the day’s text. Of course, rising early requires going to bed at a reasonable hour at night in order to begin the next day fit and rested.
6 If you are a family head, take the initiative to plan and organize your family’s schedule of theocratic activity. Some families read the Bible, the Yearbook, or another publication together as they relax after the evening meal. Many parents who have seen their children grow up to be spiritually strong Christians say that one factor contributing to their success was the family tradition of setting aside an evening each week during which they enjoyed a spiritual good time together. One such father said: “I feel that the spiritual development of our children was due in large part to our regular Wednesday night family study, begun some 30 years ago.” All three of his children were baptized at an early age, and later all three entered the full-time ministry. In addition to the family study, field service presentations or parts on the meeting can be rehearsed and other wholesome activities can be enjoyed together.
7 In your weekly schedule, have you ‘bought out time’ for Kingdom preaching? (Col. 4:5) Most of us lead busy lives, having family and congregational responsibilities to care for. If we do not make definite arrangements to share in the preaching and teaching work each week, it will be very easy for other things to crowd out this vital activity. The owner of a large cattle ranch said: “Around 1944 I realized that the only way I would get in service was to schedule a certain day for it. To this day I still take off a day during the week for service.” One Christian elder finds that having a definite schedule for witnessing enables him to average 15 hours a month in the preaching activity. If he has any secular business on Saturday, he schedules it after his morning field service. Can you and your family schedule at least one day every week for field service, making this part of your spiritual way of life?—Phil. 3:16.
8 Scrutinize Your Routine of Life: There are things that work against building our lives around Jehovah’s service. Unforeseen circumstances may disturb our carefully planned schedule of study, meetings, and service. And our Adversary, Satan, will do all he can to “cut across our path” and thwart our plans. (1 Thess. 2:18; Eph. 6:12, 13) Do not permit these obstacles to discourage you, so that you give up. Make whatever adjustments are needed to carry out your scheduled theocratic activity. Determination and persistence are necessary to accomplish what is really worthwhile.
9 We must not allow worldly influences and the downward pull of our imperfect flesh to introduce nonspiritual activities that could begin to consume more and more of our time and attention. Self-scrutiny is needed, using such questions as: ‘Has my life course gradually become unbalanced or out of focus, as it were? Have I begun to build my life around things in this world that are passing away? (1 John 2:15-17) How much time do I spend on personal pursuits, pleasure travel, sports activities, or other entertainment—including watching television or surfing the Internet—as compared with time spent on spiritual activities?’
10 If you sense that your life has become cluttered with more and more unessential activities, what is to be done? Just as Paul prayed that his brothers would be “readjusted,” or “brought into proper alignment,” why not supplicate Jehovah for help to become centered once again on his service? (2 Cor. 13:9, 11, ftn.) Then be determined to live up to your resolve and make the needed adjustments. (1 Cor. 9:26, 27) Jehovah will help you to avoid turning to the right or to the left of obedient service to him.—Compare Isaiah 30:20, 21.
11 Stay Busy in God’s Joyful Service: Millions desperately pursue happiness only to discover that as the end of life nears, the material things they eagerly sought after have not brought them lasting happiness. It has been “a striving after wind.” (Eccl. 2:11) On the other hand, when we keep our lives centered on Jehovah, ‘placing him in front of us constantly,’ we experience deep satisfaction. (Ps. 16:8, 11) This is so because Jehovah is the very reason for our existence. (Rev. 4:11) Without him, the Grand Purposer, life has no meaning. Serving Jehovah fills our lives with worthwhile, purposeful activity that benefits us as well as others in a lasting way, yes, in an everlasting way.
12 It is important not to become complacent and lose our sense of urgency regarding the fast-approaching end of Satan’s world. Our day-to-day living is influenced by our view of the future. The people in Noah’s day, who did not believe that there would be a global deluge, “took no note,” centering their daily lives on personal pursuits—eating, drinking, and marrying—until the flood “swept them all away.” (Matt. 24:37-39) Today, those who center their lives on this world will see their prospects for the future disintegrate before them in the greatest destruction that man has ever experienced, “the day of Jehovah.”—2 Pet. 3:10-12.
13 Keep on, then, building your life around the living God, Jehovah, and the doing of his will. There is no investment that you could make in this life that has such a trustworthy Backer as Jehovah. He cannot lie—he will be true to his promises. (Titus 1:2) He cannot die—nothing laid up with Jehovah is lost. (Hab. 1:12; 2 Tim. 1:12) The life of obedience and faith that we are building now is only the beginning of a life that will last eternally in the joyful service of our happy God!—1 Tim. 1:11; 6:19.
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“The truth is not part of our life, it is our life. Everything else revolves around it.”