Have you ever felt envious of someone engaged in fruitful Christian work? Maybe it was a missionary sharing exciting stories of changed lives from the mission field? Or someone singing an inspiring song during a worship service? Or a friend building into other people spiritually – and the thought that came to your mind was, “I could never do that”?
There’s no question that some people are especially gifted for specific things God has called them to do. I often think about a friend that had the gift of evangelism who seemed to encounter unsaved but receptive people wherever he went. Not everyone is called to leave their familiar surroundings to engage in foreign mission work, dealing with new languages and cultures. And most of us certainly haven’t been equipped by God to stand in a sanctuary, Sunday after Sunday, giving challenging messages from God’s Word.
However, we all can do something to advance the kingdom of God. In many cases, we can do much more than we could ever imagine. Because from the Lord’s perspective, availability is much more important than ability.
When God drew me out of the newspaper business to apply my writing and editing skills and expertise to vocational Christian ministry, I felt totally out of my element. My job description included writing and editing a quarterly magazine and collaborating on a book with the organization’s president. All my experience had been with newspapers – I’d never written a magazine article, and writing a book was an item on my “hope to do someday” list. I was fairly young in my faith walk, so for a time, I felt perhaps the Lord had made a mistake in calling me into a full-time ministry role.
But for 17 years I had the privilege and blessing of directing an award-winning, cutting-edge magazine for business and professional people, helping them understand how to apply biblical principles every day in the workplace. And the book I wrote with the president? It was just the first of nearly two dozen books I’d one day write, co-author and edit. As someone has said, “Who’d a thunk it?”
This helped me to appreciate the assurance of Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It wasn’t a matter of my ability – God was saying that if I was available, He would do what needed to be done through me.
It was a similar experience when someone suggested that I try to engage in what we commonly refer to as Jesus’ Great Commission – to “go and make disciples…teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). My first thought was, ‘I can’t do that. I’m not a theologian or a Bible scholar.’ But my friend suggested that as I invested time and energy in other people to help them grow in their faith, I would grow spiritually as well. Time and again, that has proven to be true.
Once Jesus was speaking to His closest followers, perhaps near a vineyard, using principles from the grapevine to teach them about becoming fruitful spiritually. He said, “I am the vine, and my Father is the gardener…. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:1-5). In essence, He was affirming that their availability, not some innate ability, was what mattered most.
Then there was the time my boss instructed me to travel to Brazil to meet with and encourage a group of men interested in starting a marketplace ministry in Sao Paulo and other cities. I was reluctant. ‘I don’t know anyone there, and can’t speak Portuguese,’ I thought. And I was hardly an authority in how to get a ministry for business and professional people started.
Finally, I agreed to go, although a part of me felt certain I would return in failure, telling my boss, “I told you so!” But that wasn’t the case. My days there far exceeded my expectations. I was warmly received, God had clearly prepared the way, and the people I met with – speaking as needed through translators – were eager to learn what I had to teach them. Which, as it turned out, was more than I realized.
I hadn’t gone as an expert, but as one making himself available for whatever God desired to accomplish through me. As we read in Philippians 2:13, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
Is there anything God is calling you to do, something you feel totally inadequate for doing? If that’s the case, then, as another friend of mine used to say, “You’re in a great position!”
Because you’ll have the opportunity and joy of seeing and experiencing what only the Lord can do – using you as His instrument. As the apostle Paul wrote to encourage a group of struggling believers, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
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