One
of those things lots of people struggle with. . .Okay, one of the
things I struggle with is the question: "Am I making a difference?" At
least a couple of times a year. . .Well, okay, at least every other
day, I struggle with such thoughts. Whose life am I touching? When I
try to help someone, have I made the right choice? Did I really help
them? Am I really doing what God wants me to do? Am I in the right
place to be used of Him? Am I just kidding myself? Have the failures
in my past made it impossible for God to actually use me in the present
tense, yet alone into the unseen future?
The end result is lots of questions, lots of self-pity, and lots of depression and discouragement. The problems with such thinking are many and varied. First, who am I to define what "making a difference" is? That's God's business. If God actually showed me the difference I was making, I may wish I wasn't "making a difference." After all, when I present a fragrance of Christ to people, they may not like my choice of perfumes. The difference I'm making may be turning away many a rich young ruler.
Another problem is that the whole idea of "making a difference" is "now" oriented. God is never in a hurry to make a difference. We can all point to people we know, people with whom we interacted as believers, who didn't allow the Lord to take hold of their lives until years after we had anything to do with them. We have no right to demand immediate gratification for our ministry in other peoples' lives. Believe it or not, we are not more intelligent than God. He knows when and how to make the right difference.
Still again, there is the problem of pride, the reason I want to make a difference--and to see that I'm making a difference--is to wear myself out patting myself on the back. Or, sometimes, to run a full page ad for everyone to see listing all the differences I've been making. Don't we all just love the idol of personal recognition for how spiritual we are?
And there's at least one more problem with the struggle for difference making. God is not in the depression-discouragement business. God is in the joy business. It's the enemy that wants to get us focused on ourselves, wants to get us living by sight and not by faith, wants us to be impatient with God's timing and will for others, wants to get us out of the place where he knows God is using us--despite our struggles--to make a difference. In fact, it may be that he's afraid that God is about to do something visible and remarkable in our ministry, and he's desperate to stop it by getting us wallowing in pity and clamoring for self-glorification, or even, out of the ministry God has placed us in.
The truth is: if we are giving people the truth of God's Word, His Word always makes a difference. When I worry about whether I'm making a difference, I am doubting the Spirit's power and questioning the promises of God. I am refusing to live by faith, and "without faith it is impossible to please God." I am refusing to put my faith in the wisdom and love of God.
And do you know what the most remarkable thing is? When I'm moping around in the miserable pride of self-pity and despair, God is making a difference.
Imagine that.
The end result is lots of questions, lots of self-pity, and lots of depression and discouragement. The problems with such thinking are many and varied. First, who am I to define what "making a difference" is? That's God's business. If God actually showed me the difference I was making, I may wish I wasn't "making a difference." After all, when I present a fragrance of Christ to people, they may not like my choice of perfumes. The difference I'm making may be turning away many a rich young ruler.
Another problem is that the whole idea of "making a difference" is "now" oriented. God is never in a hurry to make a difference. We can all point to people we know, people with whom we interacted as believers, who didn't allow the Lord to take hold of their lives until years after we had anything to do with them. We have no right to demand immediate gratification for our ministry in other peoples' lives. Believe it or not, we are not more intelligent than God. He knows when and how to make the right difference.
Still again, there is the problem of pride, the reason I want to make a difference--and to see that I'm making a difference--is to wear myself out patting myself on the back. Or, sometimes, to run a full page ad for everyone to see listing all the differences I've been making. Don't we all just love the idol of personal recognition for how spiritual we are?
And there's at least one more problem with the struggle for difference making. God is not in the depression-discouragement business. God is in the joy business. It's the enemy that wants to get us focused on ourselves, wants to get us living by sight and not by faith, wants us to be impatient with God's timing and will for others, wants to get us out of the place where he knows God is using us--despite our struggles--to make a difference. In fact, it may be that he's afraid that God is about to do something visible and remarkable in our ministry, and he's desperate to stop it by getting us wallowing in pity and clamoring for self-glorification, or even, out of the ministry God has placed us in.
The truth is: if we are giving people the truth of God's Word, His Word always makes a difference. When I worry about whether I'm making a difference, I am doubting the Spirit's power and questioning the promises of God. I am refusing to live by faith, and "without faith it is impossible to please God." I am refusing to put my faith in the wisdom and love of God.
And do you know what the most remarkable thing is? When I'm moping around in the miserable pride of self-pity and despair, God is making a difference.
Imagine that.
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