I feel like in this season of my life I am learning so much about life and about myself. I feel that it is important that we always remain teachable because God will always be growing us and stretching us if we allow Him too. If we become unteachable we’re essentually saying we know everything and there’s nothing that we could be better at. Only God knows everything and we should be in constant relationship with Him.
I love that I serve a God who is constantly pursuing my heart. I love that God never leaves me. If I ever don’t feel God, the question I must ask is where am I? God’s been here with me the whole time. If I feel distant from God, it’s not because He’s left. It’s because I’ve drifted from Him. I love that God has placed such amazing and wonderful people in my life to encourage me and speak truth into my life even when it’s not always easy. I value an honest friend, one who will tell you truth even when it hurts.
Something that has been on my heart and that bothers me is what I’m about to talk about next. But before reading this next part please read all of it to fully understand my thoughts. If you only read part of it, it might not make much sense.
One thing I’m seeing happen a lot or that I would consider a common theme happening in our world is that people in ministry can tend to let their priorities get out of order from the way God designed them to be. What I mean by that is that it should be God first, then your family, then your ministry. But it often tends to go God first, ministry second, then family last. I think the reason that happens so often is the people in ministry associate the two…well if God’s first then your purpose behind your ministry is about furthering God’s kingdom well then those go together is the thought. Yes, they go hand in hand but God first is your relationship with God. Your first love is supposed to be God, then your spouse; because God gave us a helpmate, a spouse for a reason…to help each other through this crazy journey called life. Ecclesiastes 4:9 says “Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor”. Then you should love your ministry after that. Because if you do it that way your spouse is going to be able to support you in your ministry, encourage you in it, help you and stand behind you in your ministry. Now let me stop right here for a second and say I’m not bashing or hating on people in ministry. I just see that many times the families of those in ministry get neglected because of it. I believe people are called to ministry and that people in ministry must know that it is a calling on their life. Ministry is more than a job. It has to be your passion. But in that you cannot put it above everything else in your life. Yes, ministry requires much more time than a normal job. And that’s just it, it’s not a job it’s a calling and a passion. But with that time you must be careful not to neglect your family. I see it happen so much and that is exactly how satan attacks people in ministry through their time. You must remember to have that family time. Not even just family time, but being a good steward of your time. That may sound silly, but you need to manage your time wisely in ministry because there is so much to do. Also that you’re not just giving what’s leftover at the end of the day to your family. Really that’s with any job that you should use your time wisely.
I’ve been on both sides of it. I’ve worked in ministry, where I learned it must be a calling and passion for you. I’ve been a spouse of someone in ministry. So I’ve seen both sides. It’s hard, it’s not easy, but God didn’t say this life would be easy. I just look at it this way if you have your ministry succeed over the sake of losing your family what gain is that?
Love God. Love your family. Then love your ministry because then you can share in it together to love people the way God has called us too.
I would encourage those in ministry to read the book Choosing to Cheat by Andy Stanley.
