Joy comes from seeing the complete fulfillment of the specific
purpose for which I was created and born again, not from successfully
doing something of my own choosing. The joy our Lord experienced came
from doing what the Father sent Him to do. And He says to us, “As the
Father has sent Me, I also send you” (John 20:21).
Have you received a ministry from the Lord? If so, you must be faithful
to it— to consider your life valuable only for the purpose of
fulfilling that ministry. Knowing that you have done what Jesus sent you
to do, think how satisfying it will be to hear Him say to you, “Well
done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21).
We each have to find a niche in life, and spiritually we find it when
we receive a ministry from the Lord. To do this we must have close
fellowship with Jesus and must know Him as more than our personal
Savior. And we must be willing to experience the full impact of Acts 9:16 — “I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
“Do you love Me?” Then, “Feed My sheep” (John 21:17).
He is not offering us a choice of how we can serve Him; He is asking
for absolute loyalty to His commission, a faithfulness to what we
discern when we are in the closest possible fellowship with God. If you
have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the
need is not the same as the call— the need is the opportunity to
exercise the call. The call is to be faithful to the ministry you
received when you were in true fellowship with Him. This does not imply
that there is a whole series of differing ministries marked out for you.
It does mean that you must be sensitive to what God has called you to
do, and this may sometimes require ignoring demands for service in other
areas.
No comments:
Post a Comment