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Psalms 119:2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
From your first conscious thought of the morning to the last conscious thought before you drift back off to sleep at night, where is your focus for the day. Is it your job, kids, spouse, money, golf, or television…or a combination of many, many, different things? For each of us it is different as each of us has different responsibilities and interest that command our attention.
Every waking moment we should on some level be aware of our ministry for our Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ not necessarily to the exclusion of our other responsibilities…but thru them. People, we have allowed Christianity to become a spectator sport, something we “do” on Sunday or maybe Wednesday night.
I submit to you that our ministry is not something we “do” but who we are all day and night, every day. Listen, the pastor of your church…if you have a church home, is no more responsible to God for how he spends his time than you and I are. His job description may be different from yours but his responsibility to encourage and minister to those around him is no different than yours and mine this day.
I have a pastor friend who constantly pushes me and others who communicate about God not to just tell people “what to do” but instead…tell them “how to do it” so here goes.
How do you keep your focus on your ministry throughout the day? By consciously choosing to do so! Our brains are capable of processing multiple lines of thought at one time and we can handle many, many thoughts from many, many directions one after another. I have found for me I have to really pay attention to what I am thinking about moment by moment and what I am focusing on and when I find myself not thinking on Godly subjects… guess what, I stop, ask forgiveness for wasting the time God has given me and change my focus to something that I know pleases Him. Some days are harder than others and this is like a battle of tug of war in my head…two steps forward, one step back…oh but at that rate of two steps forward, I am still moving forward toward my Heavenly Father. People this is a learned skill…it takes practice.
Every contact and conversation we have with people during the day is a ministry opportunity that we must choose to use. Does the name Jesus Christ come out of my mouth in every one…no, but when the opportunity does come along, I take it, I am always looking for that ever so slight crack in the door and when I see it, I walk thru it and hopefully over time I have earned the right to minister to the person I am talking to. Listen, real effective ministry to those around you each day, is not from your mouth but from your actions and life. Most of the real “preaching and ministry” in the world is in action not words and this is where we Christians have gotten confused and off track. When I started taking my eyes and focus off me and what I wanted and put it on the hurting people all around me, boy the world started to look different.
Over the years of working on this and I do mean working on it because it doesn’t come naturally to me or most of us to be focused on the needs of others, I have continued to earn the right to minister to those around me. People begin to see a consistency in your life and that you are not blown around by every circumstance…you begin to level off your highs and lows and you embark on a steady trek toward Christlikeness. That is the goal and that is the mark of the high calling to which we have been called when we placed our faith in the one true Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
Friends, this is not a theory but something I have seen change my life and to those of you who have known me for years, I pray you have seen the change that is possible and it proves that if I, Jimmy Morton, who by nature is the most arrogant, self- centered person on the planet can change…all things are possible for you. God is not going to do it for you…this is not a passive thing that he does, but something He will help you do if you “Seek Him with your whole heart”. There is no magic verse, song or pill that will do this… only you believing it is your calling and then choosing, thought by thought and moment by moment to do so.
Make this a blessed day by choosing to do so.
From your first conscious thought of the morning to the last conscious thought before you drift back off to sleep at night, where is your focus for the day. Is it your job, kids, spouse, money, golf, or television…or a combination of many, many, different things? For each of us it is different as each of us has different responsibilities and interest that command our attention.
Every waking moment we should on some level be aware of our ministry for our Heavenly Father and His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ not necessarily to the exclusion of our other responsibilities…but thru them. People, we have allowed Christianity to become a spectator sport, something we “do” on Sunday or maybe Wednesday night.
I submit to you that our ministry is not something we “do” but who we are all day and night, every day. Listen, the pastor of your church…if you have a church home, is no more responsible to God for how he spends his time than you and I are. His job description may be different from yours but his responsibility to encourage and minister to those around him is no different than yours and mine this day.
I have a pastor friend who constantly pushes me and others who communicate about God not to just tell people “what to do” but instead…tell them “how to do it” so here goes.
How do you keep your focus on your ministry throughout the day? By consciously choosing to do so! Our brains are capable of processing multiple lines of thought at one time and we can handle many, many thoughts from many, many directions one after another. I have found for me I have to really pay attention to what I am thinking about moment by moment and what I am focusing on and when I find myself not thinking on Godly subjects… guess what, I stop, ask forgiveness for wasting the time God has given me and change my focus to something that I know pleases Him. Some days are harder than others and this is like a battle of tug of war in my head…two steps forward, one step back…oh but at that rate of two steps forward, I am still moving forward toward my Heavenly Father. People this is a learned skill…it takes practice.
Every contact and conversation we have with people during the day is a ministry opportunity that we must choose to use. Does the name Jesus Christ come out of my mouth in every one…no, but when the opportunity does come along, I take it, I am always looking for that ever so slight crack in the door and when I see it, I walk thru it and hopefully over time I have earned the right to minister to the person I am talking to. Listen, real effective ministry to those around you each day, is not from your mouth but from your actions and life. Most of the real “preaching and ministry” in the world is in action not words and this is where we Christians have gotten confused and off track. When I started taking my eyes and focus off me and what I wanted and put it on the hurting people all around me, boy the world started to look different.
Over the years of working on this and I do mean working on it because it doesn’t come naturally to me or most of us to be focused on the needs of others, I have continued to earn the right to minister to those around me. People begin to see a consistency in your life and that you are not blown around by every circumstance…you begin to level off your highs and lows and you embark on a steady trek toward Christlikeness. That is the goal and that is the mark of the high calling to which we have been called when we placed our faith in the one true Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
Friends, this is not a theory but something I have seen change my life and to those of you who have known me for years, I pray you have seen the change that is possible and it proves that if I, Jimmy Morton, who by nature is the most arrogant, self- centered person on the planet can change…all things are possible for you. God is not going to do it for you…this is not a passive thing that he does, but something He will help you do if you “Seek Him with your whole heart”. There is no magic verse, song or pill that will do this… only you believing it is your calling and then choosing, thought by thought and moment by moment to do so.
Make this a blessed day by choosing to do so.
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posted by Buck at 10:12 AM 
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