18. God invites me to help grow and develop His Kingdom.

(Before looking at the questions below, take a few minutes to think about this statement. Invite Jesus to speak to you about what He would like you to notice.) 

How does it make you feel to think that you have something to offer that will benefit God’s Kingdom?

How does it make you feel to know that Jesus would like you to join Him in His work?

Are there things in this world that you would like to see different or better, things that need to be addressed or corrected? How do you think Jesus feels about these things?

As you share your feelings about what you would like to see different in our world, and as Jesus shares these feeling with you, notice the connection that this creates between you and Jesus.

It can be said that “if you love someone, you will love what they love and hate what they hate.” How does your love for Jesus invite you to join Him in what He loves and hates?

God deeply desires that every person in the universe would participate in an intimate and healthy relationship with Him, one that positively shapes and is shaped by the material world, and, God invites us to help Him make this happen.

Our lives have both a spiritual and a physical nature, and our lives have both an interior and exterior aspect. When it is healthy and whole, our relationship with God should include both. Our interior, private, relationship with God is essential for us to come to know God and His ways, and to know ourselves. Just as important is our exterior life of shared activities with God, working with God to bring about the goodness of His spiritual Kingdom as evidenced in our physical world.

An overemphasis on either dimension is unhealthy. An interior-only life becomes self-centered and weak, like a never-used muscle. Those who overemphasize the exterior life risk exhaustion, obsessiveness with outcomes, and manipulation to achieve their goals. In God’s design, He desires and invites us to join Him in work, both to keep us active and healthy and to deepen our relationship through shared activity.

But we must remember that the outcomes of our shared activity are God’s responsibility, not ours, and the benefit we receive from the activity is the joy of doing it with God. We must also remember that as we join God in the work of His Kingdom we are incapable of producing spiritual Kingdom fruit; we can only work to create the space or environment where God’s Spirit can bring about His fruit.

Work is a good thing, God loves to work, and God created us to work. God especially enjoys working with us and invites us to join Him in caring for His Kingdom.