Day 24 – Every Christian has a Ministry – Julie Earl

Romans 11

“I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people [the Jews] to envy and save some of them” (Romans 11:13-14). Other translations say, “magnify, emphasize or grow” my ministry. This verse brings up two very good points:

#1: All Christians are called to minister God’s love and truth, so all Christians have a ministry. The question is, are you ignoring that ministry because you are more focused on work, family, school and entertainment, or are you magnifying, emphasizing and growing your ministry?

The devil tells all of us we don’t matter, we can’t make a difference, and we aren’t gifted and called like others. His goal is to shrink our confidence in what God has asked and equipped us to do – preach the good news. “But God hasn’t called me to preach,” you may be thinking. Preaching on a platform is only one type of ministry, but God has called everyone to preach in one fashion or another. Strong’s Concordance states that preach means “to proclaim after the manner of a herald.” In the old days before newspapers, TV and the internet, a herald would be hired to proclaim the news to a person or a group of people. The herald didn’t make up the news or decide who to share it with. The herald would simply express what his employer wanted expressed to the person or people he was sent to.

We are all called to be heralds of the good news of God’s truth and love. That is our ministry. We grow that ministry by walking in intimacy with Jesus and allowing God’s Spirit to speak and work through us wherever we go. We don’t have to plan out what to say because we are simply listening for what God speaks to our thoughts and then expressing that to the woman standing nearby at the grocery store, or the man working out near us at the gym, or the student sitting next to us at school.

All that is required is listening for God’s voice and saying yes to His promptings to say or do something. God has chosen to speak and work through heralds, but if the heralds are all on a continual coffee break, then He can’t say what needs to be said and do what needs to be done. You can hear God’s voice and be His arms of love to your world!

#2: Christians should make others envious. When we have our eyes fixed on Jesus, and when we live in an attitude of gratitude and praise, we walk in peace, joy, love, forgiveness, grace, kindness, compassion, humility and true love. We still have problems, but we delight in the Lord in the midst of the problems so we don’t get stressed out or hopeless. We have the God of the universe living inside us, and the joy of the Lord is our strength. This is what makes others envious. And this kind of envy is the kind that will draw them to Jesus’ love and truth!

Julie’s note: There are a number of wonderful riches in chapter 11 that I hope you will write down and meditate on. There is the topic of walking away from God through unbelief, and the topic of the gifts and calling of God being irrevocable among others.

Many blessings!

Julie Earl with Crazy About You Ministries (CAYM)