When people hang around you, do they sense something different? More precisely, and far more importantly, do they see Jesus emanating from you? We should be walking so closely with Jesus that we cannot help but radiate His love and presence in every aspect of our lives. No matter what we are doing or who we may happen to be with, if Jesus isn’t on display through our words and actions, then we haven’t yet fully surrendered our lives to Him. We can’t compartmentalize our activities into the ones we give to God, and the ones over which we keep control. God loves us too much for that. He only wants the absolute best for every one of us. And He knows the best choice in any situation or circumstance will always be Jesus.
Most of us have little difficulty honoring God at a church service or when surrounded by other believers. However, most struggle keeping Jesus at the forefront of our jobs or when engaging in our hobbies or the mundane daily tasks of life. It’s not that we deliberately shut God out of these areas of our lives, but neither do we intentionally include Him. Much of our life is spent on autopilot. We move and act out of habits ingrained in our brains. In other words, we are basically sleepwalking through a large portion of our days. When we exclude Jesus from an area of our lives, we leave the door wide open for Satan to walk in and take up some space.
That doesn’t mean doing the dishes, laundry, or washing the car are evil activities. But when we do these things without thinking of God, inevitably our thoughts become consumed with ourselves. We think about all we need to do, all we’d like to do, and usually about how “other people” are impeding us in one way or another. Our lives are overcommitted but under-devoted. We allow our time to be filled with things that are irrelevant to the Kingdom of God, and then we exacerbate the situation by dwelling on everything but Christ when we engage in those activities.
Regardless of what you are doing, make an intentional choice to bring God into it. When you are doing mundane things by rote, spend that time in prayer. God longs to communicate with you, and you can gain a lot of extra time to talk with Him if you just look for the moments to do so. If your hobbies are such that you are uncomfortable bringing God into them, perhaps it’s time for some new hobbies! The bottom line is that we should always be building the Kingdom; we should always be pursuing the mission of Christ by walking in His footsteps. There is nothing we do in which we cannot glorify Him. Keeping our focus on Him prevents our thoughts from drifting into selfishness and sin. No matter what you think, say, or do, remember that it should glorify God. That is what it means to be fully surrendered to Him. That is how we know whether or not He is truly Lord of all.