1.God doesn’t need me but he loves to use me.
Often when I am serving in a ministry, I consider myself irreplaceable in that spot. I am carrying responsibilities God didn’t even give me, responsibilities that should remain resting on His shoulders instead of mine. I often tend to tap into that lie of the enemy that God needs me to achieve something, like God is dependent on me! Truth is that God can do what He wants with or without me. He actually doesn’t need me but in his great love and mercy He loves to use me for His purposes if I am available to Him.
2. Missions is not about any achievement but about love and obedience.
In the end it truly all comes down to one thing: love. This is what Paul already summarized: “For whatever we do, we do because Christ’s love compels us.” (2. Corinthians 5:14)
In the end it doesn’t matter how many sermons we’ve heard or testimonies we gave or in how many ministries and church activities we have been involved. In the end it matters if we LOVED and if we OBEYED the voice of God. This is what he is looking for. Hearts that are ready to love and to obey him. At the end of a day I wanna be content not because of the results I have achieved but because I loved well and obeyed with a willing heart.
3. I can’t save anybody.
When serving others in a personal and direct way I often feel this pressure of somehow, anyhow being in charge of saving that person. In these moments I tend to forget that Jesus Christ already did EVERYTHING that requires ANYONE to be saved. I can serve, I can invest, I can love yes, but all that is beyond that is GOD’s responsibility and not mine. I invest but I have to learn to trust God for the result. It’s about God possibilities and not about my own. He can do so much more than I could ever ask for.
4. Love yourself.
When I am travelling by plane and listen to the safety instructions I often hear this phrase: “Make sure to secure your own safety before helping others.” A very wise sentence even when it comes to missions. I am often in danger to become over-active and totally forget myself when it’s about missions. But Jesus not only commanded us to love God and to love our neighbor but also to love ourselves because he knew the importance to care about our own personal well-being. I cannot serve when I am completely dried up myself. I cannot give what I don’t have. It is my responsibility to go to the source of it all to be able to minister to others.
5. Who I am matters more in God’s eyes than what I do.
Understanding this was and is a hard lesson for me. But actually more than anything else God wants me to BE, to be in his presence. And that’s exactly the place where we are going to be in eternity. I don’t want to be too busy with serving God to spend time in his presence. I don’t believe that good deeds can earn me salvation and I don’t wanna act as if I believed that. God wants US, not what we can come up with for him.
6. God isn’t after my ability but after my availabilty.
God is so cool. I mess it up a hundred times but he can still use it for his glory. His mercy is beyond my failure. It is not about what I can do or what I can give but about what HE can do and what HE can give through me.
The key ingredient to people encountering him is never how well we share the gospel, how effectively we pray or how interesing we make our testimonies sound. The one thing we need is HIM. We can sing out of tune, stumble and stutter in our words, and people can still encounter Jesus.
7. Let God lead.
My intentional reaction when I see a need is to do anything in order to help this person. But I believe that’s actually not what God wants me to be. God often has to remind me to stop trying to make things happen.When I see a need, I have to get down on my knees. I have to give it completely to God first. Then I can ask him if and what He wants me to do in this. And eventually, when I listen to His voice I find myself living in the midst of God’s will.
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