LOSING SIGHT OF OUR SIGNIFICANCE

Quite a few years ago I sat in a pew watching everybody in the church serving God in some way, shape, or form. They all seemed to have a ministry and God was using them mightily for the kingdom; everyone from servers and ushers to pastors and evangelists. I had been a Christian for almost all of my life and yet, there I was, wondering who I was “in Christ,” with no ministry.

I thought things like, what was the matter with me, Lord? I love you just as much as they do. When do I get a ministry and something to do for you and the kingdom? I am willing and able. Don’t you trust me yet? Am I not good enough? For the longest time, those and other thoughts filled my head; I felt that I wasn’t significant enough for God to use me. He hadn’t chosen me to do anything for the kingdom, let alone great things.

I wasn’t concerned about doing great things; I just wanted to do “A” thing for the Lord. I didn’t want to be a Moses or Paul; I just wanted to be a Jim with a job to serve my King and His Kingdom.

On the outside, I tried to be a mature Christian and understand God’s reasoning, but on the inside, I struggled, and it gnawed at me. After all, those that I watched were good at what they did and the church was a better place because of them. Is my service of no value to you Lord? Is there someplace where I didn’t measure up? I knew that God loved me but I felt like I was dying inside and not going anywhere. I felt unwanted, unneeded, and unloved. God was using everybody but me.

This was not how Christianity was supposed to feel.

Are you going through a gap in a vision that God has given you? Has God given you a mission and it remains incomplete? On the other hand - maybe He hasn’t even given you a ministry to accomplish yet. If we do not yet know God’s will for our lives, we can continue with the last thing that He told us all to do [1].

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature [Mark 16:15].

There is timing to God’s will and plan for each of our lives [2] and until I understood that, I would continue to have a misconception of my worth to God. Therefore, I encourage each of you to have patience with God, and wait on Him [3]. It is dangerous to forge ahead especially in front of God. It is during these gap times that we really need to trust God and have patience with His timing and plan for our lives.

Could He only be adjusting someone else’s plan that will affect or coincide with the plan He has for you and it isn’t quite in place yet. Maybe the reason He hasn’t given us a ministry yet is because we haven’t finished the last thing He told us to do. Maybe He is just testing our faith. This is always a possibility but don’t get discouraged even if that is the case. If He gave you something to do, He will give you the ability to finish it [4].

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ [Philippians 1:6].

However, in the meantime, He has given everybody to be ministers of reconciliation [5]. God gave us all the ministry of preaching the Gospel to every creature [6], to reach the unsaved [7], and to present the character of Christ to the world [8].

What better ministry than to bring someone else to Christ and watch the miracle of a changed life. There is no better miracle than salvation.
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[1] Mark 16:15
[2] Jeremiah 29:11; I like the NIV version
[3] Psalms 46:10
[4] Philippians 1:6
[5] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[6] Mark 16:15
[7] Luke 15:4
[8] Romans 14:18

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