3 Steps to Being a KINGDOM BUILDER in Your Life Today - Part 1Sýnishorn

Today, we reach the last letter of our first guide word to setting the foundation as a Kingdom-building Christian – the letter “R” in the word ”NICER”.

For this, we look at the idea of being “Responsible to others.”

God has placed you in your particular life situation—at home, work, or in your community—for a specific reason. Each placement is for His glory, to help build His Kingdom here on earth.

Sometimes, the focus is on your own personal development, preparing you for what’s next.

But most times, God has a plan to use you in your interactions with others. In those situations, you are His hands and feet right where you are to help others—at work, around town, and, of course, at home, too.

Often, where God wants to use you is precisely NOT where your pastor, missionary, or other spiritual caregiver comes to do the spiritual work, is it? So if there’s work to be done for the Kingdom where you find yourself, you are likely the one to do it.

Remember the parable of the Good Samaritan? Let’s rephrase that story in the context of the modern-day life…

The “priest” in the parable might be the manager who is too busy to care for his employee. Or, maybe it’s you as a shopper too busy to help someone in need.

The “Levite” in the story might be like the HR department at work, with the responsibility to help employees, but who is too busy on other corporate initiatives to make time for that. Or, maybe it’s you running an errand, too busy to stop.

Whether or not you have any formal responsibility like the priests & Levites referenced in the parable, it is YOU that God wants to use as His hands & feet to help others, to His glory, and to help build His Kingdom in ways that you might not even know. Even when you’re super busy or when those “others” are especially difficult or frustrating to deal with.

But wait you say – why do I need to do that? That’s not my responsibility! Or is it?

Remember the top two commands in the Bible?

Love God is #1. Love your neighbor is #2. All the other commands and instructions in the Bible are secondary to these.

The Good Samaritan had no “official” responsibility to help the wounded traveler on the roadside—much less so than the priest or Levite. But Jesus uses this story to point out that this Samaritan just passing by was still to be the “neighbor” to the wounded man—even though Samaritans and Jews did not associate in those days!

Think of who you spend time with or come across during the week. Besides family (where you are responsible), who are those “others” that you might not have any "official" responsibility to help at all? Maybe a coworker, a neighbor, or a friend of a friend?

How you reach out to help those “others” that intersect your daily life may be the best measure of how well you are following the 2nd-greatest command in the entire Bible.

Being “Responsible to others” might be the most difficult of the 5 concepts contained in our guideword “NICER”, but it is necessary to have all 5 aspects of this foundation in good order for God to use you in the building of His Kingdom – even if you cannot directly see the impact!

Can you build all 5 aspects of being NICER into the foundation of your daily life?

Take the NEXT STEP…

Next, engage with the YouVersion reading plan to uncover the second guideword for living as a Kingdom-building Christian: "BLESS Others."

The readings in this series are taken from the book “You can be a KINGDOM BUILDER too: 3 Steps to Living your Faith in Everyday Life” – click here to get your copy. The book contains the same material found in these YouVersion reading plans, plus some extra bonus material, and in a handy format for passing on to others or re-reading yourself.

We hope this reading plan has been a blessing to you. For additional reading plans by this author, search for “Roland Heersink” in the YouVersion app.

Blessings to you!