‘Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are
subject to you . . . —Luke 10:20
Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us
as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly
desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after,
the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after
anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go “outside
the camp, bearing His reproach” (Hebrews 13:13). In Luke 10:20 , Jesus told the disciples not to rejoice in
successful service, and yet this seems to be the one thing in which most of us
do rejoice. We have a commercialized view— we count how many souls have been
saved and sanctified, we thank God, and then we think everything is all right.
Yet our work only begins where God’s grace has laid the foundation. Our work is
not to save souls, but to disciple them. Salvation and sanctification are the
work of God’s sovereign grace, and our work as His disciples is to disciple
others’ lives until they are totally yielded to God.’ CHAMBERS
Spiritual Success
I have seen and experienced some amazing things
during the past two years in Haiti and the previous 5 years in
Mississippi. God moving in a powerful
way .. doing incredible things in the lives of people ... Americans and
Haitians. We have rejoiced and praised
God in all of those experiences. We were
quick to give God the credit, yet many times we felt that those things that God
had done somehow validated our service.
We did this and God did that and something cool happened.
Chambers causes me to think .. what if nothing
happened .. what if we toiled in the fields and never saw fruit from our labor
.. is there some point where we would give up ... thinking that we had failed
in our calling.. or had missed what God had "really" shaped us
for?
It is easy to shift focus off of God and on to the
world. To use the world's standards to
measure the effectiveness of ministry.
Numbers are important in our culture.
King David thought that .. counted the people .. God was not happy. (2
Samuel 24, 1 Chronicles 21) The truth is
that anything that God accomplishes through us is still God's
accomplishment. We should not take
personal pleasure or find affirmation in God's mighty acts. But we should stand in awe of God. And what if there are no apparent
supernatural interventions in our spiritual service? Well, we should still stand in awe of God ...
He is not bound to our calendar or this world's chronology ... He is eternal ... He causes all things to work
together for good (Romans 8:28). And
that is good enough for me to serve Him to the end of my days ....
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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