‘Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.’ John 12:26 https://my.bible.com/bible/116/JHN.12.26
‘For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. ‘ Hebrews 6:10 https://my.bible.com/bible/116/HEB.6.10
‘For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. ‘ Galatians 5:13(NLT)
‘And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. ‘ Romans 12:1(NLT)
‘Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”’ Luke 6:38(NLT)
#5 on our list: MINISTRY
ASK God to show up for you as you’re going over priority #5 on the GSFJM list.
READ: JHN 12:26, HEB 6:10, GAL 5:13, ROM 12.1, LUK 6.38
DEVOTIONAL: My choice to get involved in mission work has given me and my family the opportunity to travel all over the world and meet some amazing people. When working with people and teams to prepare them for going on their first mission trip, it is interesting how most of the thought process is wrapped around their thoughts of “helping others that are less fortunate.” That’s a great reason to go for sure and may be just the thing that gets you going on a trip like that. But after coming back, what I find is that people are changed, internally and externally from the experience of “helping others” or “doing” ministry. I served as a youth ministry assistant helping lead high school youth mission trips to Costa Rica twice a year from a pretty well-do-to church community and more often than not when we would return, parents would come up to me and say, “What the heck did you do to my kid?!!! They want us to sell everything.” That’s kinda what hands-on ministry does to you when you’re all-in. As my kids like to say, “You get wrecked!” I remember leading men’s groups into Juarez, Mexico to build houses for families living in the barrios. Men loved to sign up, bring their tools and “get ‘er done.” Over the years, I saw the toughest of tough men broken, tears streaming down their face while sitting in church with the families that had received the homes we built, just grateful for a place to call home (that home BTW, was about the size of one of our one car garages here in the USA). I watched many of those same tough men, after serving and listening to God’s voice through their hard work in missions in Juarez and other places, step forward to dedicate their lives to full time or regular service through ministry. Wow!
Here’s the truth – When you choose to serve, no matter what reason it started out for, you will most likely be changed to see things the way God sees them, and it changes your perspective about what we have and how we live. I’m certainly not telling you to go out and sell everything, but that reaction from our mission high schoolers was a great indicator of God working in their hearts – just like He’ll work in yours. What I am saying is this: it’s never too late to get involved. Get out of your comfort zone and join God by serving others. That can be doing laundry at a local homeless shelter, packing boxes at the food bank, sitting down to help families in transition understand how to balance their checkbooks, repairing or painting homes of seniors, or going to Africa or Indonesia (or anywhere!) for a couple of weeks to teach English or do a VBS week for kids; there are LOTS of things you can do with a group from your faith community, whether on a 17 hour flight taking you 9000 miles away or right down the street with a family struggling to make ends meet due to health or job changes. James 1:22 says, “Don’t just merely listen to [God’s] word, and so deceive yourself. Do what it says!” So get out there and DO IT!
WRITE down some thoughts about your Bible reading today. How do you feel about being involved in ministry? Does it make you nervous? Is it fun? What skills do you have, maybe from your job or other experiences that might be valuable for others around your faith community, in your town or for neighbors? Write down some ideas about how you could make yourself available for ministry. Follow through with doing it!
MEDITATE: Take the time to think and pray about what came out in your writing and reading time today. Pray over these things for a better clarity and direction for the Holy Spirit to speak to you for how to get out of your comfort zone and be active in ministry.
from George Smiles From Jane’s Marmalade