Getting By.

All through public school I just did enough to get by. I could do little work or no work and still get a grade of “C.” I only read a couple books through school. I was just average. I didn’t see the value of doing well in school. Having fun was of much more value. I quit school in the middle of grace 11 and went to work to buy a car. However, I regret this now.

When I became a true Christian at the age of twenty, I found great value in Christ and wanted my life to count for Him. I love Him and therefore I wanted to please Him and do the work as Jesus did in co-operation with the Father. (John 5:17) After coming to Christ, I went to Bible College for a couple of years and then on to university on a special admission for a mature student and received a B.A. in Sociology. The first year in university my grades where not high enough and I had to wait a year before attending again. After graduation from university, I went on to a Baptist Seminary and received a Masters of Divinity. If I had taken seriously my education in public school, things we have gone a lot better in my education following.

Likewise, too many Christians are just “getting by.” They are putting in time here, until they get to heaven and want to have as much fun or comfort until that time. This will be unfortunate for them now, as well for them in heaven. To live a self-centered life is not the way of Jesus and does not bring us our best life here to God’s glory. If we fail to love Jesus and others and make our lives a ministry to the glory of God, we will miss out enormously.

Do you believe the lie of Satan that if you live for yourself as your own Lord you will enjoy fulfillment? Do you believe sin is much better for you than being obedient to Jesus? Satan said to Eve, “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths”(Genesis 3:2-7). Mankind has been hiding ever since.

Will you have more fun in sin? Will you have more freedom by pretending you are God? The Bible says, “Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). The delight of man’s heart is God and this is where we find our completeness, joy and fulfillment. God is what makes heaven, heaven.

Satan is proposing the God is a killjoy. He doesn’t want you to have fun. Satan proposes that God is only denying you Godhead because He is a huge manipulator. This is why Satan revolted and rebelled against God and tried to set Himself up as God and Satan wants to lead man down the same path. At least then Satan will have followers even though he knows he is and will be defeated in Christ for those in Christ.

If we believe the lie we will be just “getting by.” (Romans 1:25; 2 Thessalonians 2:11) Surely it is much better than taking your life, but there is so much we can experience in Christ in this life and make our life count here and into eternity. Jesus said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). Save you life from any hurt, discomfort, inconvenience and you will lose what is most valuable. The athletes the saves himself from training and the discipline of eating correctly will also deny himself likely of winning. Yes, we need to be wise but we need to take wise risks to get involved with people and influence them, love them, and assist them to grow spiritually or to come to Christ to born again. This often means taking the initiative.

As a child no one likes to get picked last for the team. We all don’t like the feeling of rejection. However, if we don’t try and try with determination we will never succeed. Many successful businessmen have failed many times before achieving success. Abraham Lincoln failed many times as well before becoming the man he became. Thomas Edison tried many times before he was successful. If we cannot face rejection or the possibility of failure we will not accomplish much. Even sharing the gospel with people in our culture is to risk rejection and being ignored. However, many Christians are not good at it because they have never learned how and have tried enough to be good at it. If our identity is fully in Jesus Christ the rejection of opinions of others will not be the controlling factor of our life and we will have grace in the midst of it.

Loving people can be difficult at times. We may have to limit or monitor the manipulated behavior of those who are trying to assist. Mother Tersa poem expresses it well.

“People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;

forgive them anyway.

If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

succeed anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable;

be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, there may be jealousy;

be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;

give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

it was never between you and them anyway.

To love you will need to take risks and be willing to bear some hurt. There is always misunderstanding, misconceptions lack of communication and pride that infiltrate our lives and the lives of others. The Bible says, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart (1 Peter 1:22) We are not to love only those who love us and only be transactional like the world we are love the same way Jesus loves us, knowing we could never achieve His love mutually. We are not to love people with a shallow love but as the scripture says fervently. Putting our heart into it. Jesus said, “
For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” (Matthew 5:46).

Life is a whole lot more than getting by. The Bible often speaks about rewards in heaven. Love is still the highest motivation, but the stark reality is that there will be some kind of reward in heaven according to our life. Of course, this reward is only for born again Christians, who are only the real Christians as Jesus said in John 3:3, ““Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” If you just get by, you might miss out on something in our relationship to Jesus in eternity. We will perhaps not know that we are missing out after Jesus initially calls us to account. We have very high calling in Jesus Christ. Our calling is to be an apprentice or disciple with Jesus. The Apostle Paul says in the Bible, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1). Again, the Apostle Paul states, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). Again the Apostle Paul says, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14).

Life is a lot more than just “getting by.” It is setting our sights on Jesus and loving Him and pleasing Him in truth. It is setting our sight on the high calling and going with gusto to the glory of God. It is as Oswald Chambers’ title of his book says, “My Utmost, for His Highest.”