There’s a Minister in All of Us!

“And because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.” (Acts 18:3)

I celebrated my 57th Birthday last month, which prompted a lot of questions for me about where I am in my Christian walk.

The closer I get to 60, the more I realize there are a lot more years behind me than ahead of me. I never thought much about it until I got into my fifties, but the Bible tells us that we should not expect to live too much beyond 70. I finally understand why my dad read the obituaries so religiously when I was in my teenage years.

It’s not that I am worried about where I’m going when I die. Jesus made a promise to me that I know he will keep. My concern is whether I am doing enough to help him advance his kingdom while I am still here.

I am grateful that God reached down and saved me. My salvation experience taught me a lot about what the words grace and mercy mean. None of us deserves his love, but the truth is it’s his love that explains the change I see in myself and it’s his spirit that has helped me to understand who he is and what he has to offer. The question is “Am I doing enough to get that message out?”

My wife thinks that I have grown weary in doing well. Weariness is a quality that all Christians experience from time to time. In fact, the Apostle Paul once said, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” (Galatians 6:9)

It’s not that I am weary because I’m unable to see the fruits of my labor. Hardly a day goes by that someone doesn’t tell me how much a column of mine has helped them. The nagging question for me is how can I do more?

I have often wondered if my yearning to “do more” was God’s call for me to dedicate the rest of my life to some full-time ministry. But you know what? The life of the Apostle Paul has helped me to understand that I just might be right where God wants me. Paul didn’t quit his job as a tentmaker in order to be a minister. He knew that he could serve the Lord and be a tentmaker, too.

Paul’s life has helped me to realize that you don’t have to “go into the ministry” in order to minister. The fact is all of us are expected to show others the love of Christ and we should never allow the devil to convince us that we have to leave our stations in life in order to do it. It is one of Satan’s biggest lies!

God has placed me where I can make a difference for him. I can’t waste that opportunity and neither can you.

Scripture tells us that we have been ordained to tell others about the difference Christ can make in the life of a sinner. That’s why Paul, a tentmaker, said, “Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.” (Ephesians 3:7)