Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Effective in Ministry

I love being in the presence of someone full of the Holy Spirit, speaking God's words, ministering in His goodness. I see this in my husband when He is teaching in our adult Sunday school class or with our midweek youth Bible study. It awe's me! That's what I want for myself. To be used by God like that. So I can't spend enough time in this journey with Christ. The more I know Him the more I can share His goodness with others. There's just one problem that gets in the way...me. Even though I teach for a living and get in front of college students lecturing, I lean more to being an introvert verses an extrovert. It is painfully difficult for me to "mingle" at events, to speak up and share my heart in a Bible study or shake hands of unfamiliar people during the greeting time at church. It makes me terribly uncomfortable!
So I have been feeling God's urging that if I want my prayer to be answered to "be a vessel He can use", I have to get over this insecurity. I have to be strong enough to "Walk Across the Room" ( a wonderful book by Bill Hybels if you haven't heard about it yet). I know that God will meet me (you) where I (you) am but I (you) can't stay there. There is such a Christian that can have a great deal of spiritual knowledge but be ineffective and unproductive in ministry. I don't want to be that type of Christian. God needs me (you) to move "across the room" for His kingdom-to live out His goodness. 'Goodness' is defined as "the quality of being good, specifically-personal virtue; excellence; kindness; generosity; benevolence; the best part, essence, or valuable element of a thing". Wow! That is a powerful description! The value of goodness is but a steeping stone for effective ministry as we see in the principles found in 2 Peter 1:5-8:
"For this very reason, make every to add to your faith goodness;
and to goodness knowledge;
and to knowledge, self-control;
and to self-control, perseverance;
and to perseverance, godliness;
and to godliness, brotherly kindness;
and to brotherly kindness, love.
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure,
they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive
in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ".
So I am challenging myself and anyone who reads this, to step out of our comfort zone and reach out. Live out the goodness we have experienced and learned in Christ. To be an effective ministry partner for Christ, to be used by Him, we are called to be filled with goodness and kindness and emptied of ourself. We are called to be a "valuable element" of Him.
If you have time, please share what you do to overcome yourself to live out these principles found in 2 Peter 1:5-8. If you are like me and find it difficult to "walk across the room", or have overcome this, please share how!
In His Graces~Pamela

2 comments:

Lelia Chealey said...

Hi Pamela!
Awesome word! Loved this...We are called to be a "valuable element" of Him.
I read the book by Joyce Meyer called "Confident Woman" & that really showed me to put my confidence in Christ, not myself. When I write a poem for someone & they shower me with compliments, I just keep pointing them to Christ. This happened recently with a woman. My husband & I went to a different church to hear our friend speak. Afterwards, this woman approached me about some writings she had read of mine & I said things like "God is so good..." Of course I thanked her, but she just kept on & finally she said, "It takes talent too." I said, but I got it from God. :) When I get full of myself, writing is such a struggle for me. When I'm full of Him, it just seems to pour out of me.
So, being naturally shy, I place my confidence in my King & watch in amazement at Him as He does His thing. :)
Many Blessings~
Lelia

Lysa TerKeurst said...

I totally understand what you are writing about here. Because I think left to my own devices--- I am quite shy as well. But God has invited me so far out of that box, it's not even funny.

Thank you for this post and for encouraging me so much with your kind comments each day. I always smile when I see your sweet name~