We looked at three things today which God definitely wants us to want:
- To live in harmony and unity
- To live with purpose
- To seek God’s kingdom first
Living In Harmony & Unity
Harmony & unity do not mean that we are all the same. God is the God who made each one of us different. The God who made over 60,000 species of trees, over 69,000 species of flowers, over 8.7 million species of animals, 32,000 living fish species and 10,000 different species of birds can cope with variety! So He calls us to celebrate diversity and live together in harmony, respecting our differences and not trying to squeeze everyone into the one mould.
Harmony musically is not the same as unison. It’s infinitely more varied and adds much more depth (and pleasure) to music. When we live in harmony and unity, we achieve more together than we can possibly do on our own. Church, I believe, means we are ‘better together.’ (Rend Co Kids)
Living With Purpose
God has plans for our lives, individual plans and corporate plans, and there is nothing more exciting and fulfilling than living life God’s ways. So many of us once had dreams and ambitions, but perhaps life has got in the way, and we feel deflated and lacking ambition. Maybe we have never really had any clear idea of what life is all about and so we just drift on, never quite knowing why we are here or what God wants from us. God wants us to be like Caleb, living with purpose even in old age. (Joshua 14:12-14) He can take our dreams and make of them so much more (‘Dream For You’, Casting Crowns.) Though it may take time for these dreams to be fulfilled, we can live with vigour, passion and purpose.
Seeking God’s Kingdom
Seeking God’s kingdom first and seeking to be salt and light in our community means we live with purpose and hope. We can do this in many different ways, which may often seem mundane (litter-picking, distributing hearts and doves and painting murals, for example), but ‘each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.’ (1 Pet 4:10-11) We’re back to the ‘various forms’, to the diversity each one of us represents, but this is the wonder of God’s great plan: to use humans as His witnesses and messengers to transform the world from the inside out, so to speak.