Am I doing the will of God by helping clean up the ocean?

We are all called to spread the gospel to others and we are also all called to do stuff like helping others, helping the poor, helping widows, etc. The main purpose being spreading the gospel. As long as you're continually doing that, then go clean up the ocean! We can't neglect spreading the gospel, but taking care of Gods planet I'm sure is something he would appreciate.

"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31

You pose an important question. You are following the word in Eph. 5:16 "redeeming the time, because the days are evil." Sometimes I think that believers get caught up like King Saul, that instead of waiting from God for their answers, they proceed to do some religious activity without even the assurance that God is interested. So I am sure that God is pleased that you care. I think almost certainly that this is a decent use of your time. The point though is to follow the will of God the best you can as He directs each individual. Typically God gives hints to us. A check in our spirit that something is wrong, a peace when something is right. Or on some things, God may step it up and communicate to something more specifically. What you do too may change over the years. I have to laugh now but as a new Christian I can recall God basically telling me to quite reading the Wall Street Journal everyday, that it was interupting what he wanted me to learn. In a later season in life I returned to that and did not have any hint that I should stop. Just keep God first and let the Holy Spirit show you more. God bless!

As @caffeinated hermit noted, every calling is different and your heart for the earth is evident and admirable. You may want to do an in depth study on the subject through the bible and peruse resources around the topic by christian authors. Be at peace and use the task as opportunities for fellowship with the Lord and enjoy yourself.

~bella

`Ocean`by David Attenborough shows you are lending a hand to people when helping clean the ocean imo.

JohnB445 said:

I enjoy going for a swim, I will pick up any trash I find whenever I can. I thought of dedicating a full day to help clean up the ocean, or would God want this help to be towards helping people instead of the environment?

I have donated to charities that are about helping people, but I find I am really good at helping keep the ocean clean since I can scuba dive, and carry big things I find out of the ocean like a car tire, or whatever junk that has sunk to the bottom.

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It makes the waters safer it's not a bad thing to do.

But you should probably leave tires behind. They're actually useful to sea creatures and coral can grow on them. Eco groups deliberately tie old tires together and throw them out to sea near shore to encourage coral formation.

Coral can also grow on metal things that has sunk to the bottom. You can leave them behind too except for the ones close to the beach where people could accidentally step on them and cause injury. Plastic bags definitely remove them. They're not only toxic, they also look like food/prey to some sea creatures and may eat them by mistake. All other plastic junk too and all small pieces of junk regardless of material even if it's a small chunk of tire (small pieces can be accidentally eaten by marine creatures and shiny ones like aluminum cans may look like prey fish).

Ironically, you might actually be using up more resources that ultimately contribute to harm by going out of your way to remove junk from the ocean. Humans are just hopelessly inefficient creatures by default.

Picking up litter can be a good example to others. However, the main effort of the Christian life should be becoming a better person by walking after the Spirit rather continuing in the flesh.

1Ti_4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

There are things that "profit a little". Godliness (being like God by showing selfless love) is the more complete path

timf said:

Picking up litter can be a good example to others. However, the main effort of the Christian life should be becoming a better person by walking after the Spirit rather continuing in the flesh.

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Ironically, walking or living in the Spirit is quite involved in physical matters. It's nothing more than living in the truth.

"Corruption" in the Bible can mean many things and this can include pollution.

There's a strong correlation between national corruption, crime index, and danger index of a nation and religion. Ironically, the most Christian nations are also the most corrupt and most dangerous right alongside Afghanistan.

If you're thinking that extreme danger makes people closer to God you might have to rethink that relationship when the leaders of these nations are also Christians, even worse, organized crime bosses and its members are also Christians who regularly attend church and even donate to charity!!

And the scariest part of all these is that people by instinct will not follow religions that don't agree with their personal convictions. They'll abandon religions that does (John 6:66).

I'm not saying that Christianity is the wrong religion otherwise I won't be quoting from the Bible anymore. But consider the prophecies that the movement that Christ started will be corrupted. Read the whole chapter of Jude 1. And judging by the results, it would seem the majority of Christianity is corrupt already. I'm not making these up. I'm still using the same logic used in the Bible and stating facts by the numbers and most importantly, it was prophesied.

On the flip side, the least religious nations (excluding communist nations) are also the least corrupt, safest, cleanest/least polluted, lowest poverty rate, highest per capita income on average, highest quality of life, lowest in human rights abuses. If there is a problem like poverty, they fix it and not just for the show and not just with chump change, unlike what the Pharisees and hypocrites do. Everyone is quite involved. Matthew 25:31-46 comes to mind. They didn't know they were serving and loving the Lord and could very well be a prophecy of the last days.

It's really disturbing when in highly Christian nations, greed is rewarded while in least religious, non communist nations, selflessness is rewarded. Something huge is definitely going on. The Lord is definitely moving something but escapes the attention of those who are supposed to "believe" in Him.

If walking in the Truth and Spirit, everything will fall into place and there will be transformation and evil people will try to take it by force.

JohnB445 said:

I enjoy going for a swim, I will pick up any trash I find whenever I can.

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Good . . . that you enjoy doing that. Jesus enjoyed walking on water.

Maybe it would be a good idea to concentrate your safety cleaning to be in areas where people swim and might walk barefoot.

And we can help needy people. Be prayerful about which people you work with to help others. There are church people who can be helping the wrong way. And ones can use an organized thing for making contacts for immoral and other purposes. So, we always need to be able to know what is for evil and what is for good. Of course, we can join a group partly in order to reach the ones with the wrong reasons, be an example.

God does use our example >

"nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." (1 Peter 5:3)

JohnB445 said:

I enjoy going for a swim, I will pick up any trash I find whenever I can. I thought of dedicating a full day to help clean up the ocean, or would God want this help to be towards helping people instead of the environment?

I have donated to charities that are about helping people, but I find I am really good at helping keep the ocean clean since I can scuba dive, and carry big things I find out of the ocean like a car tire, or whatever junk that has sunk to the bottom.

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I think that is awesome. When God created man, He gave him dominion over His creation (Gen 1:26). Therefore, we are called to protect and care for His creation like God's anointed and appointed grounds keepers. This was the first assignment for humanity. Caring for the Earth is fulfilling our first primary objective that God has given humanity, therefore, you are doing the Lord's work when you do something so simple as picking up trash on the beach. May God bless you and encourage others to do the same.