Do you actually think that God is impressed with the quality of your work? Do you actually believe people talk about the things you have done throughout the week, every week?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news – but no.
I was reminded repeatedly the other weekend of this truth and an idea that, when I have focused on, has steered my ministry and work. It was a jolt to be so incessantly reminded of this and my failures in it.
The idea that unless my life and heart are aligned and living in a way that glorifies and pleases Jesus Christ – then it really does not matter what I do for my church or anything else for that matter.
This principle is true in business as well. A company can have a fantastic website and logo yet have a completely awful product or a failing business process to back it up. At that point – who actually cares what your site looks like? It is all the more serious in our ministry work where lives and His glory are on the line in our local churches.
We don’t need more Christians in full time ministry. We need more full time Christians.
With the tremendous amount of contributor freedom on this blog (thanks to the awesome Jeremy Smith) I have almost exclusively written the ‘how-to’ type of articles. If you have not figured out by the title, this piece will not be the same. Oh – I had planned to write an article that was, but sometimes God has a way of changing our plans.
So there are no 5 steps or 3 tricks here on how to keep your heart and mind right. You already know the answers. There are no tricks or simple steps to this life, just hard work. Every single day.
When your love for your work or ministry surpasses your love for Jesus Christ then you need to stop, slow down, and get back to your First Love. Revelation 2:5 gives us a fantastic template on how to get back on track if you find yourself out of alignment:
“Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place — unless you repent.” (NASB)
Remember: back to what things were like when you were on track. What were you doing? Where were you going?
Repent: Fix it, admit it, confess it if need be. Many times we just need to take a clear evaluation of what is specifically wrong – and make it right before anything else.
Return: Get back to doing it right – the way you were before. Not to say you need to just do things the “old way” but just back to how you were living life, the habits you had and the things you did in that time.
I love how this verse ends with an emphasis on how important this really is. Get it right or get out (until you do!)
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