Not many of us can say we are a Minister by profession. The one called to be a Pastor or Minister has the qualifications and gifts necessary to lead or shepherd those in his or her care. However, we all have a ministry to the body of Christ. The way that we serve one another….that is our ministry.

That thing you do at your church or small group…greeting, ushering, cooking a meal, changing a diaper, working on the tech team…each of those work to serve the community of believers. Serving. In the Greek, it is diakonia, meaning “to wait tables”, and is most often translated in the Bible as…”ministry”.

It is serving one another, not for recognition but just because we want to contribute to the body of Christ and love like Jesus. If you are wondering what your ministry could possibly be to your church or small group…just show up…and ask “how can I help?”

Romans 12:7 (NLT) tells us, “If your gift is serving others, serve them well.”

God has given us the gift of Ministry.

What do you want to be when you grow up? That is such a good question to ask children. It’s fun to hear their answers and can even spark some good conversation about what careers they might aspire to grow into some day. But, the pressure can mount as kids become teenagers. And that question can lead to some angst.

I remember during my senior year of high school feeling this enormous pressure to make a decision that I would be locked into for the rest of my life. Because while a few of us may know the path we are going to take after high school the rest of us are struggling to figure it out. One day a professor gave me such good advice. He told me to start moving in the direction of what I enjoy. He said that most people change direction or at least do different things on the way to figuring it out. That day I felt as if I’d been set free. I loved singing and encouraging people and so I began to move in that direction.

We may not feel that what we are doing is important but each of us are called to do something….and the world needs who we were meant to be. There is a calling on each of our lives. 1 Corinthians 7:17 (TPT) says, “May all believers continue to live the wonderful lives God has called them to live, according to what he assigns for each person, for this is what I teach to believers everywhere.”

What God assigns for each person…that is our calling. Walking in the direction of what we enjoy…good advice to open the door to God’s revelation to us of what we were created to do.

God has given us the gift of His Calling.

One of my favorite memories of when my children were little was hearing their little voices say, “mommy, would you stay with me?” Looking back, what I wouldn’t give to hear them say that…one…more…time. Whether they were scared or lonely, or a bit of both, hearing them ask me to focus my attention on them and stay with them was so precious. Oh there were times when I thought….I have so much to do! I need to clean up the kitchen from dinner. Finish up a project. Prep things for the next day. I can remember telling myself….it won’t always be this way. Someday they’ll be grown up and gone and I will long for them to say, “mom, stay with me.”

Today, they are busy adulting on their own. The truth is the tables have turned and it is me sometimes saying, “hey, would you sit and stay with me for a while?” Being in the unhurried presence of the ones we love is such a precious gift. I had someone give me wise advice a number of years ago…be where your feet are. Be present.

We never have to beg God for His presence. While He is bigger than the universe and busy holding everything together, He is also within our heart, ever present, holding US together, day and night, through the good times and especially the hard times. We don’t have to flag Him down during a busy time and His presence is never determined or swayed by our performance.

We know this because Jesus promised us in Matthew 28:20 (ESV), “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

God has given us the precious gift of His Presence.

The moment that we are born something so miraculous happens. Well, there are a number of miraculous things that are happening at that moment, but that first burst of air we take into our lungs when we are born is so incredibly amazing. Our Creator, God, made us so intricately that while we are being formed in our mother’s womb we can receive all the oxygen that we need through her. But the instant we are born our little lungs begin to breathe on their own. Some of us might need a little assistance to get going but eventually we get the hang of it.

God made you and I in His image. His breath is also referred to in His Word as His Spirit. Just as God is three persons in One, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit…so are we…three in one. We were formed by God to have a body, a soul and a spirit. It can seem a little complicated at first but when we understand that as God breathes into us the breath of life at the moment of our birth we begin our journey on earth to make our way back to God.

When our soul makes the decision to receive Christ as our Savior, His Holy Spirit begins His work to help our spirit grow closer and more intimate with His. It is a beautiful process of restoration that only our God could do. And it all began with His breath. Genesis 2:7 (NLT) tells us, “Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.”

God has given us the gift of His breath of Life. 

One of my favorite quotes of all time was written by Mark Twain and that is this: ‘The two most important days in your life are – the day you are born – and the day you find out why.’ We can spend our entire life trying to figure out that second half but one thing is assured. Each of us has a purpose.

Psalm 138:8 (ESV) says, “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of Your hands.” I believe this verse explains why sometimes we have such a difficult time discovering our purpose. In fact, I think it comes down to one particular word in that verse. And it’s the word “His”! His purpose for us. Maybe we focus so much on trying to figure out what we think our purpose is in this life that we forget to ask God to reveal to us His purpose for our life.

We know that we were created to worship God and there is something about walking in what we know that leads us toward God that will help us to see what is next for us…because He is our light to our path. (Psalm 119:105) So if you are unsure of the plan God has for your life today…begin to worship Him. Worship Him with all of your heart. Trust that, in His time, He will reveal His purpose and plan to you.

God has given us the gift of Purpose.

Standing in front of a blank canvas, or staring at a blank screen on your computer can be a bit daunting. Imagine what it was like in Genesis 1 verse 2: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” ….a blank slate. The very next verse starts with…”Then God said,…”

He spoke. His Word started it all. The creation story is magnificent! The power of His words formed the heavens and earth, the day and the night, the creatures on land and in the sea and those that fly in the air. All the trees and vegetation….spoken into existence. When God created Adam He spoke His plan when He said “Let us make man in our image,” formed him from the ground and then…God breathed HIS breath of life into Adam. What an extraordinary treasure to know that we have the breath of our Creator inside of us!

And God has continued to teach us, to lead us and inspire us through all the generations by His Word. 2 Timothy 3:16 (NLT) clearly reveals this, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”

God has given us the incredible gift of His Word.

“I hope we get an Atari!” I remember my brother and I discussing our Christmas list shortly before the big day. It seemed like every kid in school had this game console…except us! I’ve said a lot of “I hopes” since then. I hope I make the team. I hope I make first chair. I hope I get into that college. I hope I get to travel.

That kind of hope is connected to our dreams of what else this life can hold for us. We hope for a spouse who loves Jesus and treats us like gold. We hope for children, for a career that we love and one that supports us. We hope we can get everything accomplished that we want to do! And these hopes are good to hold onto. They spur us on.

But there is a hope that never disappoints. God gives us this hope to hold onto when all the things of this earth seem out of our control and out of our reach. And this gift gives us even more. Romans 5:5a (ESV) tells us, “Hope given by Him works together to give us confidence, joy, peace, power and love. That is a true gift!” All of those things come, not from what we do or even who we are. Those are blessings from our Father who pours them out in abundance as we receive His gift of Hope.

“Excuse me, sir, could you give me the time?” That phrase may be a distant memory to those of us older than the cell phone! Today it’s rare to ask that question because most of us who even care what time it is have a cell phone that prominently displays the date and the time on the home screen.

We keep track of time every day. We set a timer. Punch a time clock. Coordinate time zones and play times. Some days feel like they drag on forever and yet we get to the end of some weeks and think…where has the time gone??!! We rush by some things because we say ‘I don’t have time for that’. And things we have always wanted to do but never took the time to do we might excuse by saying ‘I just never had the time’.

One of the best illustrations of TIME that I ever saw involved a giant pickle jar, some rocks, pebbles and a bucket of sand. The instruction was given to label the large rocks as the most important things. The smaller stones and pebbles were things you’d like to do, hope to do and sometimes urgently must do. The sand represents all the other stuff that takes our time and attention from the most important things.

When you pour the sand in and then try to fit the pebbles on top….there will be very little room left, if any, for the large rocks to fit into the jar. But, if you BEGIN with your top priorities, the large rocks, and put them in the jar first…then you have plenty of room for them as well as the pebbles that represent your important things to accomplish. Finally, pour the sand in and surprisingly it just fills in around your top priorities and other important things to get done.

That jar can represent our day…and it can also represent our life! How are we prioritizing our time? Are we taking care of the most important things first?! Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV) tells us, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” God has given us the gift of Time. It is up to us how we use it.

That tastes like heaven! This vacation spot feels like a little slice of heaven! I’ve actually said both of these statements. You may have as well. We don’t know what Heaven is like but when our senses are met with experiences that bring us so much happiness we can imagine that surely this must be a little bit of it! Those moments can remind us that we have something so wonderful to look forward to beyond the here and now.

Heaven seems so far away, doesn’t it?! There are a few mentions of Heaven in the Bible and we know that someday we will ‘get to go there’ when we have received Jesus as our Savior. Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us so that where He is we can be also. That promise alone is beyond words! But what if we could experience some of Heaven while we are living here on earth?

Have you ever thought about the possibility of really experiencing Heaven on earth? How about being able to receive something that God poured out on us directly from Heaven? Did you know that Heaven has windows? There is a place in His Word that He tells us that is so. And that blessings from Heaven will be released, or poured down, on us…until there is no more need. Wow – what a promise! And what is it that activates that gift to us? When we give. Specifically, God said that when we are obedient to give our tithe to His work He would open those windows and POUR down blessings from Heaven. If we really want a taste of Heaven here on earth…Malachi 3:10 (ESV) holds the key.

“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

God has given us the gift of the Blessing of Heaven.

A conversation begins as we look for a connection point. What do we have in common? What is the most topical or pressing thing in our shared environment? Like the weather or our favorite sports team. Time, environment and attention most often control our conversations. We see someone we really want to connect with but we’re in the grocery store or we have three more stops to make on the way home and we don’t feel like we have the time or space to connect. And sometimes we are just oblivious to opportunities. We miss the chance to go beyond ‘hey, how are you?’ with ‘yeah, I’m fine.’

We often treat our prayer life with the same parameters. I’m short on time so I’ll talk with God later. I need just the right ambience or the perfect tone set before I can engage in prayer. But if we really unwrapped God’s gift of prayer to us we would know that He isn’t hung up on time or space. We can engage in conversation with God anytime and anywhere. In fact, I believe we can talk with God no matter what else is going on around us. He wants us to talk with Him about everything!

Imagine going on a trip with our spouse or a friend. We don’t reintroduce ourselves every time we begin a new conversation. And we don’t need to fill up every mile of the trip with conversation. Sometimes there are miles of the trip that have no conversation. Just a quiet ‘I am comfortable in your presence’ kind of silence that becomes a rich and treasured part of the journey…experiencing it together…and sometimes no words are even needed.

That’s the equation for a prayer journey with God. Philippians 4:6 (ESV) explains. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

God has given us the extraordinary gift of Prayer.