You’re busy in your church; believe me, I understand that. You’re already teaching a Sunday school class, you’re actively participating in the various activities and services of the church. When your pastor or someone else comes to you and asks you to do just one more thing, you jump on it. You have a hard time saying no to the requests because you know that you do have the abilities and skills needed to get those things done. I know what this feels like because this describes me just one year ago. This past Sunday, I was asked to share my salvation testimony as a part of the Sunday morning worship service of the church that I attend. As I shared my testimony, the Holy Spirit laid on my heart to share the concept that a person could be extremely busy in the various ministries of the church and not be fulfilling the ministry that the Lord has placed in front of them.
You’re busy: why I buried myself in the work of the church
I have never been comfortable talking about the work that I do. One of the things that I dislike about college/university teaching is the bi-annual updating of my educational resume. I simply don’t like a lot of fuss made for what I do; I never have and probably never will. Not only do I believe this is scriptural [Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips (Proverbs 27:2); But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth (2 Corinthians 10:17-18)] , it is also a part of the environment I grew up in that I will undoubtedly carry throughout the rest of my life. In no way am I sharing this to brag upon myself but to share how busy I was within the church.
When I was attending Gospel Light Baptist Church, I had become a church trustee, a Sunday School teacher, song/worship leader, worked the church’s audio-visuals with help of family and others, videotaped the sermons, edited and posted them online, and took care of all the church’s printing needs. At one point, I even offered a basic Christian discipleship class for young-in-the-faith Christians. The entire time I was doing these things, I knew it wasn’t the calling that the Lord laid upon my heart. I justified my not surrendering to the Lord’s will by believing that since I was doing all these things for the church then He would just understand. I even tried to wrap up what I was doing with the ministry the Lord had laid on my heart by telling my pastor and others that I wanted to expand the printing ministry to be able to serve small and struggling congregations. Yes, while the Lord has called me to serve small and struggling congregations, it was not the exact way or method that He had laid on my heart
In my mind, I had very good reasons why I was busying myself in the various ministries and support of the church and not being completely surrendered to the Lord’s plan for my life. There’s comfort in what we know; the exact ministry that the Lord had been working on my heart on for the past three years is full of uncertainty to the point that my family and I would have to completely rely on the Lord. Within the gospel of Mark, there is a story of a man, a father, who comes to Jesus about the condition of his son. The father, as any parent would do, asks Jesus for a miracle. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief (Mark 9:23-24). For most of us, we will come to a moment in our lives where we know the Lord is capable of a miracle, of taking care of our needs, but we still need to see something before we will let go of our doubts, fears, and worry. I was comfortable were I was at; and in my form of justification, there was no reason that I could not stay there and serve struggling congregations through a printing ministry.
One of the other reasons were there were things in my past I felt made it nearly impossible to overcome. Even though I have read the verse a hundred times at least, it never really sank in: For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance (Romans 11:29). It is easy to stay in a place of comfort regardless of how busy you have become when you feel that there is something in your past that you believe simply cannot be overcome, that serves as a barrier, or that holds you back from doing what the Lord has called you to do. It becomes easy to see the Goliath and rather than confronting him as the shepherd boy did, to stand back with the armies of Israel, trembling and terrified with every taunt the giant throws out. It took the Lord three separate people to remind me that if He has led me to a certain ministry, then He has prepared the way for me to do it, as long as I put my complete trust and faith, as David did, in the Lord. David knew he had already been promised by the Lord to be the king of Israel. He also knew that with the promise of being king some day, the Lord would protect him from the wrath and anger of any giant that stood in the way, as long as he would keep faith in the promises of the Lord.
