I may not see in front of me, But I can see for miles around when I look over my shoulder, and Lord, it`s clear. You`ve brought me here, So faithful every step of the way. What can I do but follow you, For You are the Way, the Truth, the Life, And You`ve promised never to leave me, My Savior, my friend, From beginning to end.
I Am Found In You
by
Steven Curtis Chapman
Some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know the Lord brought me here to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. Philippians 1:15-17 NLT
It is important in any ministry, and really any activity, to check the motive behind what you are doing. Jesus taught a lot about the heart and said “where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” You will usually do your best with those things that you love the most. If you have a baby in your home you probably have to change some “smelly” diapers, but the passion you have for your baby gives you the motivation to change diapers willingly. (Hope that wasn’t too crude of an illustration.)
Why are you doing the things you do? Recently I attended a church leadership conference. One of the speakers said that we should always ask the question “For what ministry are you having to manufacture energy?” In other words, what are you doing in ministry that you have to make yourself get excited about?
He then encouraged us to either “fix it” or “kill it”. Those are hard words for any ministry, but the fact remains that we will never do our best at something unless we are really passionate about it.
If our problem is one of passion, we should examine the passion. Shouldn’t we have a passion for whatever the ministry is, for example? If I’ve been called to preach, then preaching should be a passion for me. If I’m no longer passionate about preaching, then I need to ask God to renew that passion. If I’ve never sensed a call to preach, however, and there is no preaching, then I probably need to quit preaching. Most of the time our passion can be determined by our motivation to do the things we are doing. Obviously if our motivation is one of greed or self-serving interest then we have an improper motivation.
You and I will do greater works for the Kingdom of God, and really even perform better in our personal life, when we have the proper motivation to do those things that we do.
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