Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!”

Matthew 4:9

The bible tells us that Jesus recruited the disciples at their place of work, where ever that was.

In the case of Peter and his brother Andrew, when He called to them the bible tells us “at once they left their nets and followed Him.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we really considered our lives each and every day, and realized that it’s not “all about me?”

But the trouble is that most of us view our lives as our own. We don’t consider that if God had a plan for us, from the beginning of time, and that plan involved working for Him. As we do the work that He called us for, in our homes, our communities and our places of unemployment, He then puts His plans into motion, right where we are.

I once had a job I was not fond of, but times were tough and jobs were hard to come by. I would get up in the morning, slowly, dreading to go to my place of employment. I prayed about it and one day, while seeking the Lord, I heard the still small voice in my head that said, “You aren’t really working for that company, you are working for me.”

I began to meditate on that. Slowly, I began to realize that God was speaking a truth to my heart. I began to see that God wanted me to be a beacon of love and light in that crazy environment. I then began to walk into work with a happy heart, as I saw my work as that of the Lord, and not all about me. By the time I finally moved on to another department their I had seen God use me to pray with fellow co-workers, minister to them and see a couple of them come to know God as Lord of their lives.

So where are you today? Do you dislike your situation? Are you frustrated in the way your life is going. What would happen if you simply sat down and ask the Lord how you can best serve Him in the midst of your circumstances.

Maybe you just need a plan. Maybe you need to quit obsessing over your own problems and look around to see how you can make a difference in the life of someone else.

If when we are laid off, we can still let the Lord use us. We can pray for others, we can go serve soup at a soup kitchen, and we can cheer the life of others we meet in our daily lives. The very idea that we can be happy in the midst of our circumstances is a silent testimony for God.

We all get depressed from time to time. The problem comes when we dwell in depression. I stayed in depression for years, until God delivered me. The battle with depression is in the mind. When we start feeling sorry for ourselves, we go into major discouragement. I learned, through the Word, that God wanted to deliver me from dwelling on my own problems and myself all the time. Self-pity comes from dwelling on what’s wrong in our lives and then obsessing on it day and night. When Satan plays, like that, with our minds nothing changes and He has us where He wants us. We can choose today to not sit with depression. Instead we can step out in our gift to help others. Even if it’s only to smile and them!

The secret to living life is to not be entangled in the daily circumstances, whether they are good or bad at the moment. In Philippians 4:11 Paul says the following; I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.

In life we will have good and bad circumstances. Our goal is to live in peace and serenity no matter what the circumstances. When we reach that level of faith, our whole life changes for the better.

Father, it’s not easy living in these times. Problems, of all sorts, abound on each and every side and we are sometimes like a tiny boat being tossed unmercifully about by the storms of life. Keep us steady, and happy no matter what our circumstances may be. Help us to remember it’s “All about YOU.” It’s not “all about US.” In Your Name, the Name above all names. Amen and Amen