Balancing Ministry N' Work

Happy Thanksgiving! Last week we looked at a few things that we have to be thankful for. As followers of Jesus we are part of God’s family, which means we have been chosen by God to spend an eternity in Glory. We have been made holy, meaning all of our sin has been washed completely away so that we can be in God’s presence. We are dearly loved, not just appreciated, thought about… but Dearly Loved. I love that phrase; we are Dearly Loved. To me it shows how close the connection or bond is. We have a lot to be thankful for. That is part of the reason Paul told the Thessalonians to embrace the will of God and Rejoice Always, Pray Constantly, and Give Thanks in Everything. It is our Lord’s desire that we live our lives in this manner. If we focus on the here and now, that will be difficult. The trick is to focus on God and remember the indescribable gift our Lord has given us. The more we can do that, the more we can remember to Rejoice, Pray, and Give Thanks. Think of your time

 As we head into Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are taking a break from the Things We Need… series. Most years we do spend several weeks focused on Christmas, but do not usual break for Thanksgiving. This year more than others, I felt we needed to take some extra time and remember what we truly have to be thankful for. If I were to say ‘2020 has been a rough year.’ Some of you might tell me that is a bit of an understatement! The year started hearing about this virus in China and we started praying for them and praying that it would not be as serious as we were hearing. Political turmoil followed based on decisions to limit travel. Then the virus hit our country and many people lost their jobs, forced to take unpaid time off, businesses have closed, and the overall economy has been hurt. Sadly, instead of our leaders pulling together for the good of the nation, we saw more political turmoil. If that was not enough a couple of bad people did some bad things, which triggered protests

“When arrogance comes, disgrace follows, but with humility comes wisdom.” – Proverbs 11:2 Our last Things We Need… was Humility which leads to the next Things We Need… Wisdom. One might ask, how does Humility lead to Wisdom? As we allow ourselves to recognize who we are in this grand world we live in, we begin to accept our place in it. Knowing who we are and who we are not, is part of being Humble. Add to this an understanding of who God is, how we are lost without Him, how much we need Him, and learning to depend on Him, also increases our Humility. As we accept who God is and how we are truly lost without Him, our Things We Need… Humility grows. As we let the Holy Spirit take that Humility and work in us, the Things We Need… Wisdom begins to take shape. Humility is the foundation of Wisdom. We cannot grow in the Things We Need… Wisdom, without understanding who we are in this world and how much we need and depend on our God. Which is why the Proverb states that ‘with humility

Things We Need… Jesus the most of important of all, Excitement with a focus on being excited for God’s Word, Simplicity reminded us that we don’t have a bunch of rules to follow we simply need to repent and follow Jesus, and then we need to remember to Praise God always and in all things. Today we will look at our next Things We Need… Humility. Before we get into what the Things We Need… Humility is, I want to point out what it is not. The Things We Need… Humility is not having a low self-esteem, it is not thinking of oneself as inferior to others, it is not deserving to be treated poorly, and so forth. Humility is something we should pursue, but it does not mean we are less than others. The Things We Need… Humility is something that was modeled to us by our Lord. As we walk with Jesus we need to be following in His footsteps and humble ourselves before our God and in service to others. Humility is not something to be avoided, it is not a bad thing, it is a virtue to embrace. “