Getting Involved in Kingdom Work

If you are involved in any type of “Kingdom work,” such as that listed below, you may want to read this entire post. These are just a few of the little tasks that are out there on a continuing basis:

·        Visiting the sick and shut-in.

·        Teaching in a Christian setting.

·        Giving of your time and energy to any Christian mentoring.

·        Helping in a physical way in the church and its outside property.

·        Volunteering for work in a hospital, mental institution or the like.

·        Helping the sick and/or shut-in in maintaining their homes and property.

And there are many other “small” job openings that need to be  filled

You have a question at this point: “What makes a work the “Lord’s work”? It is the Lord’s work if you do it foremost for the sheer sake of helping Christ by helping His servants or any of his creatures. You may get paid monetarily for what you do, but that is all right if you can say from your heart that you are not putting monetary gain first.

For example, I at one time worked for Aenon Bible College in Indianapolis, In. I was paid for my services, but my overriding desire was to do what little I could in giving people a better knowledge of God. Consequently I was working for the Lord. In fact, the employment by which you now make your living, can be to you as though you were working for the Lord. You are Christ’s representative; you present Him to your coworkers and superiors by the life you live on a daily basis. But that is another story. We are dealing here with jobs or tasks that directly help to fill a need in the church, someone’s home, someone’s life or in an institution, and the like.

There are numerous ways in which a person can work for the Lord in addition to the ones listed above. And then, some of the tasks named above may not be such as you can properly fill physically, temperamentally or spiritually.  If you are ill-suited to a particular slot you want to fill in God’s great economy, that is a sign it is not God’s will. Don’t try to force your bulbous body into a slot or niche made to be filled by a smaller plug; look for something else, and pray as you look. Look about you with love and concern for the needs of your fellow creatures. But avoid like the plague the seeking of a “cushy” job: you may get a reputation with your heavenly employer of being a goldbrick or “a person who tries to avoid work; a shirker.” (Compton’s Interactive Encyclopedia) You really do not want to displease Him.

There are tasks – some for the moment only and some of longer duration – that you have the ability to carry out, but which require more than minimal effort and demand a moderate amount of personal sacrifice. Think a while: You have been seeking and praying for a need you can fill. All right, here is the need. You have the ability to fill it, but it demands – not more than you can give – it demands what you are fully capable of giving but are reluctant or too lazy to give. It is not a highly impersonal task. The filling of this need will affect you as a person. And here you stand, not loving enough, not caring enough to act as though you meant it when you cried so piteously to God, “Lord, what can I do?” Are you going to default now? What about the need of your brother or sister? What will God think of you, especially how will He regard those cries you sent heavenward, supposedly prompted by the love filling your heart, “Lord, help me to help others; help me to fill this void in my life by my filling the needs in the lives of others”?

You can’t work for my God. He pays well, but He demands much. He insists that you be faithful, committed and thick-skinned, that is, you must not be easily offended when your work “isn’t appreciated” or, worse, when it is rejected. In your hurt and anger, you will imagine all sorts of things wrong with you. You will see character flaws that may or may not be there – and if the flaws are really there, what of it? They are just one of the flaws we all have and that God is trying to purge out of us, if we will not panic.

Can you withstand the cruel mental devices that Satan will use to distract you from what you are supposed to do? Are you willing to give up what the task may require of you? If not, you cannot work for this Employer. He will ask more of you than you will be able (or willing?) to give.

But, as I have just said, if you will not panic because of any real or supposed flaw in your makeup (and we all have them); if you bring your imperfect self to God to fulfill His perfect will, if you love Him enough and love His creatures enough, why, I think you are just the employee God is looking for. Climb over the shambles of defeat. Push upward and onward even though you feel like giving up. Make the will of God your consuming passion and He will bless you much and make you a blessing and comfort to those who need you.

If you refuse to give in to any and all opposition, your work has just begun!

Comments

[Diane]

Thank you for making sure that I read this. I've told people that I felt like God set me up in volunteering for hospice because this is definitely not something that I would have done on my own. It is a sacrifice and I do panic sometimes, but I know that God has me on this assignment for a reason.
Thanks, Daddy!
Signed,
Your favorite daughter-named Diane