All in the Serve - Called to Work

"Go to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple..." - Haggai 1:8

Today at our quarterly recalibrate ministry meeting, Troy taught through the book of Haggai and related to us the truths about serving. The people who returned to Israel, who were truly the brave and faithful ones since the others stayed behind in comfortable Babylon, were now being exhorted over there poor priorities, perspective, and passion.

One of the points that really hit home though came from the verse above. It is a verse you could typically breeze over really quickly without understanding the significance of it. To gain a good perspective, think about what it is like to go hiking in the mountains. Though it is fun, it can also be very tiresome and some tough "work" for a day of enjoyment. Now take the thought of hiking and add manual labor into it. Not only will you be going up into the mountains, you now will be chopping down trees and then carrying the wood back down the mountain to build with and you do not have any sports utility vehicle in which to do it. That's hard work! And who demands this work? The Lord!

Just as He wasn't afraid to call the nation of Israel into action to serve Him, He still calls us into the same sort of service. Sometimes serving the Lord is going to take hard work. There will be times you're going to be tired, you're going to burn the midnight oil, you're going to be running on fumes. I'm not sure where people think service to the Lord should simply be comfortable and "easy" and if it involves doing something "hard" then they're not interested. We are called to serve, we are called to work.

However, we aren't called to be burnt-out. If you are "burnt-out" in ministry it is because you've been doing ministry under your own power without the power that is readily available to you. When you do ministry in your own flesh, you WILL get burnt out. But, if you are doing it through the power of the Holy Spirit, you may get tired physically, spiritually, emotionally, you may feel like you're running on fumes, but you're never get burnt out.

What is the Lord calling you to do? What's holding you back from doing it? We are called to work...it's all in the serve!