TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

I Was Just Thinking About – TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS.

There is an interesting event and interaction in the life of Jesus when he was 12 years of age. It is recorded in Luke 2:41-52 when Jesus had stayed behind in the temple after His family left the Feast of the Passover and headed for home. They had travelled several miles on their journey home. When they stopped for the night,  Joseph and Mary look for Jesus and cannot find him. As responsible parents, they backtrack to Jerusalem and find Jesus in the Temple “…sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.  And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.”

Luke 2:48-49 shares the interaction between his parents and Jesus. Verse 48: “His mother said to Him…your father and I have been searching for you in great distress.” Jesus responds, verse 49, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” The NKJV renders the rhetorical question of Jesus: “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” The MSG renders His words: “Didn’t you know I had to be here, dealing with the things of My Father?”

In a Hymn written in 1902, I Am A Stranger Here, there is a stanza that states:

This is the King’s command: 

that all men, everywhere,
Repent and turn away 

from sin’s seductive snare;
That all who will obey, 

with Him shall reign for aye,
And that’s my business for my king.

The force of the words is that every Biblical Christian is to be taking care of business for our King. In the Devotional, Day By Day – Charles R. Swindoll writes about our focus on Today and  one’s commitment to taking care of business. He wrote:

Those servants who refuse to get bogged down in and anchored to the past are those who pursue the objectives of the future. People who do this are seldom petty. They are too involved in getting a job done to be occupied with yesterday's hurts and concerns. Very near the end of his full and productive life, Paul wrote: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith" (Second Timothy 4:7). What a grand epitaph! He seized every day by the throat. He relentlessly pursued life. 

How do you relate to these words? What is your level of participation of Taking Care of Business for YOUR Father? Will YOUR Father be pleased with how you view His business for His world today?

Joseph Stowell asks in the devotional, Get More Strength for the Journey: 

If God required your prized possessions, would you place them on the altar for Him? Think about it. What’s more important to you, the gifts that God has given you, or the Giver of the gifts?...Is your love and loyalty to God based on what He does for you, or is it based on your love for Him whether He ever does anything for you or not? 

He couches his questions in the context of Philippians 3:8, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Until one arrives at this place and point, he will never be able to adequately take care of business for The Father.

Prayerfully – consider these things with me.