Bible Text: John 6:38 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living |

For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. John 6:38

“’My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work’” (John 4:34). Another translation uses the word “meat,” as in meat and potatoes. Simply put, He had two clearly defined objectives: (1) do the will of His Father, and (2) finish the work. Management consultant Peter Drucker said that to succeed in business you need ask only two questions: “What’s your business?” and “How is business?” That’s saying essentially the same thing that Jesus said.

Question: do you know what God’s purpose and will for your life are? And, how are you doing in finishing the job? The reality is that time goes faster on the downhill run. The projects that you always intended to get done seem to be pushed aside by the tyranny of the trivial and the urgent. So we neglect the important, filling our lives with non-essentials that don’t really matter.

David once prayed, “Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.” (Psalm 39:4). On his 75th birthday, Billy Graham said that one of the great surprises of life was its brevity. When you are age 25, 75 sounds very ancient. When you are 50, you have abandoned building the castle, and are willing to construct something far less palatial. And when you approach 75, you look back and say, “Where has time gone?”

“Dost thou love life?” asked Benjamin Franklin a couple centuries ago, adding, “then use time wisely, for that’s the stuff that life is made of.” The question you need to face, whether you are age 25 or twice that, is not how much time you have, but what you are doing with the time you have. But here’s the challenging caveat: You don’t know when the judge of the earth shall say, “Enough!”

Life can be cut short at age 30 when a woman has two small children, a wonderful husband, and much to look forward to; or reaching age 50, you can simply be half way on your journey.

That’s the unknown factor! Who says that middle age starts at age 40? You may be on the homestretch at that age. Remember, Jesus said He had two objectives: (1) do the will of God, and (2) finish the work. Try that for guidelines for living life to the fullest.

While you may not have thought about this, you can’t really know the will of God until you know Him who has the will for your life. Knowing God’s will begins with a relationship with Him whereby you claim Him as your Father, confess your need of forgiveness, and allow Him to adopt you as His child. That is the most positive, energizing decision you can ever make.

Only then do you discover that God’s will is good, complete, and beneficent. Don’t think for a moment you’ll sit in a rocking chair, dressed in black, sipping vinegar from a lifeless cup. God is a good God and His will for you is better than yours because He knows the end from the beginning and wills only goodness for His children.

Then make your second goal a simple one: finish the work God has for you. This means learning to prioritize and leave undone the things that don’t really count, that take your time and energy, and leave you too tired to love, to care, to rejoice, to bring blessings to others.

“My food,” Jesus said, “is to do what I’ve outlined.” He thrived on it. You will, too. It’s the only way to a purpose-driven life, and the only way to eternal life as well.

Resource reading: Psalm 39