We are a get-it-done culture.
We can’t allow slackers to have any sway. Toss ’em out the window. We have a job to do.
In the church, we often feel the same way. Who wants to get to Judgment Day and be filled with guilt that we didn’t do more in the service of Christ?
Yet, we walk a fine line. It’s easy to let our self-worth be dependent on how much we get done for Jesus. We begin to tally the conversions we’ve won for Christ. Our checklist for the Wednesday street ministry becomes more important than our family time. Then there’s our parking place at church. Give it up for a visitor? Why, look at the supplies we lug in to teach our Sunday school class. We need that prime parking spot.
There’s something we’ve missed. Our self-worth—our happiness and peace—doesn’t come from our performance. Our walk of faith isn’t a tally sheet we fill for entrance into the heavenly realm. If we depend on what we do for God to determine how we feel, we’ll be miserable.
Our justification, faith, joy, and peace come from the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Hebrews 12:2 tells us:
“[We are] looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Reaching to the lost is part of our divine commission. We should volunteer to minister to the homeless. There’s no doubt that our Sunday school teachers are to be commended. That’s not, however, where we find our joy. We “fix our eyes on Jesus,” for in him we find the one who took our shame and invites us to sit at his side next to the throne of God. Our joy is found in Jesus, and we labor for him out of love. We give to him not for ourselves, but for the benefit of his kingdom.
When our joy flows from Jesus, our work for him will be filled with praise.
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Code: FGO.I.03.17d.vp.esv