You are part of God's ministry

When you hear the word ministry, the first thoughts that come to mind are your pastor, worship leader and maybe your elders.

What about you? Are you in the ministry?

Scripture says you are. If you have called upon Jesus to be your savior, then He has called on you to a part of the ministry.

In 1 Peter 4:10, the apostle reminds followers of Jesus that “each us you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

He says if any of us speak, we should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. And when we serve, we should do so with the strength that God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

In the two preceding verses, Peter says we do this because we are to love one another deeply and offer hospitality without grumbling.

When you share the gospel with someone, when you pray with someone or when you show compassion on someone, and do so in the name of Jesus, you are doing ministry.

In Luke 10, Jesus sends out an appointed 72, two by two, because the “harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

It’s easy for us to say they were active participants in the ministry. But they were really no different than us, even the apostles, because at this point, it’s still very early in Jesus’ ministry.

Remember, you don’t have to have some theology degree or have gone to Bible college to be part of the ministry. If you’ve trusted Jesus as your savior, for the forgiveness of your sins, you are part of His ministry.

God has given you certain gifts, whether it is writing a blog or writing music or simply having people into your home.

If you aren’t sure where your spiritual gifts are, there are plenty of assessments available online. One good one that I found is Gifted2Serve at http://buildingchurch.net/g2s.htm.

It has 125 questions, but it can help you narrow down what areas of ministry you can best serve. Maybe that will be taking care of young children at church. Maybe you will find your strengths are in praying for people or maybe you’ll find that God has gifted you with the ability to walk up to complete strangers and start a conversation about Jesus.

Pray about the ministry God would have you be a part of and use tools like a spiritual gift assessment or simply talking with friends or your pastor about what strengths they see in you.

Remember, we don’t know how much time we have on this earth. Our personal ministry may last 50 years or we may only have five minutes.

Live so that the Lord will one day say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”