I recently decided to read through the gospels in a Chronological Bible, paying special attention to the words of Jesus.  The question on my heart was: In Jesus’ life here on Earth, what, exactly, was He teaching?

And so, my reading began.  I was reminded of all of the miraculous occurrences and fulfillment of so many prophecies in the narration regarding Jesus’ birth.  Then, at the age of twelve years old, we find Him in the temple, amazing the doctors with His spiritual understanding (Luke 2:46-49).  The first recorded words that we find of our Lord as He lived His life here on Earth was, in essence:  Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?

From the moment of recorded Scripture of Jesus’ life here on Earth, we find that He was about His Father’s business.  My mind stayed there for a few moments, and then was carried to the last recorded words of our Lord here on this Earth.  In Luke 23:30, as Jesus hung on the cross, just before He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost, He said: It is finished!

What was it that was finished? …  The Father’s business – that work which the Father had given Him to do.  I reflected for some while on that truth.  What exactly was the Father’s business, and what was it that Jesus had finished? …  It was, in actuality, the redemption of mankind!

My thought went from there to my own Christian life.  It is so easy to get distracted or weighted down, often encumbered by many things.  It was then that I was reminded that all of what the Father calls us to is still about redemption.

My life is meant to impact others.  My life is meant to bring others to Christ. My life is still meant to be about the Father’s business – to be about redemption.

As a Christian, sometimes our eyes get on our self or our own “personal” Christian life, but what the Father actually calls us to is to represent Him (and His gracious redemption through His Son) to others – to our spouse, to our children, to all of the others that God brings across our path.

As I further contemplated these truths, it became so clear why I get so distracted. So often I find that the things upon which my time is spent are mere encumbrances or weights because they have nothing to do with redemption!

I am asking the Lord to help me weed the unfruitful things out of my life.  At the end of my life, I want to be able to say, as the Apostle Paul: I have finished my course!  I want to know that I have completed that which the Father had for me to do. I want to have spent my life “on task” and have been about my Father’s business.