“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
How do you measure spiritual success? Should you measure spiritual success? Why would you want to measure spiritual success. In the culture that we live in, value is
measured by visible results. You do thus
and so and if you are successful, you will see a measurable result. If you are a missionary .. you should see
conversions … if you are a pastor … you should see and ever expanding church ….
Etc. But there is a problem … there have
been missionaries that have toiled for years with not one person receiving the
Lord, but when they had died … there was a great fruit. So what is going on? I recall the first sentence in the book “Purpose
Driven Life”, “it’s not about me.” The life
of a Christian is spiritual. The work
that we do is spiritual. (1 Corinthians
3:5-7) “as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but
God has been making it grow. So neither
the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes
things grow.” What happens spiritually
depends upon the hand of God.
There is a temptation to begin to think that somehow, we are
the ones who are producing the result. In
2 Samuel 24 David decided to number the people.
The people around him warned him not to do it, but he had it done
anyway. And God became angry. Why? Because David was taking credit in his
heart for something that God had done.
He was robbing God of His glory. There
is the danger in our trying to quantify the results of our work and thereby
taking credit for what has happened. To
measure our effectiveness in ministry. While
Martie and I were having lunch yesterday, a young man approached our
table. He introduced himself, saying
that he had met us years ago in Waveland.
He thanked us for the impact we had, unknowingly, had on his life. When he returned home, he and his wife started
a ministry in the inner city and have been serving there for the past 8
years. We had no idea that had happened.
And really, we didn’t need to know … You see it was God at work not us … He
used us to impact that young man’s life who then impacted the lives of many
others … I had to check my spirit and not accept his gratitude as if that had
happened because of me … so somehow my work and service had been
validated. God may let us see the
increase that He brings now and again … and we say praise God for what He has
done. If you really want to measure
something … measure how much your life reflects Jesus Christ. Trust me, that will keep your pride in
check. CHARLEY
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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