“To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,” Ephesians 3:8 ESV
Reflection: how do we look at the work we have been given for the eternal kingdom of Christ?
It is easy to get discouraged in this world, even working for the kingdom of heaven. We see churches, and people in ministry trying different things from time to time, to get the people of the congregation more involved and engaged, increase the size of the congregation, to spread the message. Some church leaders “burn out”, and either change their line of work, or take a sabbatical to rest, to learn, to do something different. To get refilled again. So why are there burnouts working for God? Isn’t it enough knowing that we are working for the Lord?
It is a good topic to consider.
Allow me to share something personal with you. As you may know, I created and launched the TwoThumbsMinistry website just about two years ago. Since then, I have written and posted well over 500 devotionals which are all available, as well as published the first book “Journey Through Romans”. Now, the reason why I invested time and money in the website, was for making it easier for the reader, easier to find devotionals on various subjects and books of the Bible, and of course, easier to spread the message to people. For anyone. Simply share the link to a devotional in a text or email. Even to buy a book to give as a gift. One benefit of having the website for me is that I can easily track numbers of people reading each day, which gives me an indication of whether the number of views is the same, increasing or decreasing over time.
What I have learned over these past two years, is that the daily number of views is staying about the same since I launched the website. That is of course good on the one hand, and I am very grateful for each one reading. But it also means that the devotionals are not being passed on to others. In addition, the book which was a substantial investment in time and money, has only sold a handful of copies. That, quite frankly, has surprised me. Not sure about you, but if I was running a business I think I would need to do something very different with my time and money. And, perhaps that is exactly the point. We can so easily compare ministry work in the kingdom of heaven with doing business in the world.
In today’s focus verses, Paul is discussing his ministry, as he says “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,”Ephesians 3:8 ESV. Did you notice how he sees the work he is doing for God? He says it is “God’s grace given to him”. Wow. That is not how we often look at work for the kingdom of God. And if we think about Paul’s situation, he was frequently imprisoned, tortured, poor and probably hungry, hated by his countrymen, and so on. But he kept going, looking not to acceptance by the world, or by man, but that his work was pleasing to God. He fully recognized who gave him the assignment, and whom he was working for. And, of course, he had been given a very special assignment by God. While Paul saw some of the fruits of his labor before he died, we know in hindsight the enormous impact his work has had on the world.
It has truly been the grace of God.
Jesus commanded His followers to go, to baptize and to teach “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” Matthew 28:18-20 ESV. He didn’t say this would be easy, not that everyone would accept the gospel. Paul’s example is good to consider for all of us not get discouraged as we do what Jesus commanded of us.
So, regarding the TwoThumbsMinistry, I am deeply grateful to the Lord for allowing me to have an impact in the kingdom of heaven. It is only by His grace. This ministry is targeting followers of Christ, to build a deeper love, awareness and knowledge of what the word of God says, and is therefore focused on second part of Jesus commandment, “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you“, So, I am asking the Lord what’s next with this ministry. How can we reach more believers to observe and follow the truth.
