Great things for God

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. John 4: 34

There is something in the heart of many Christians and churches to do something great for God. We know God is a great God and does great things and so we slip into a mindset that says we too need to do something great for our God. It will show how much we love him. However this thinking has a fatal flaw in it because God has never asked us to do great things for him but to do great things with him. There is a huge difference.

Doing great things for God can lead to a life independent of God.  God has not called us to live our lives without him unless we cannot manage – he wants us to live our lives dependent on him. This can be a very hard concept for us to accept because many people fear becoming mindless idiots unable to think or do anything for ourselves. However God wants us to use our God given brains and gifting in conjunction with him. We see dependence on God as limiting us but God sees dependence on him as expanding our lives beyond anything we can ask or imagine. If we are dependent on what we can think or imagine, limits soon become obvious. When we give our brains and talents to God for him to use, the limits disappear.

God wants us to do great things with him. He has wonderful plans for our lives but it means we have to stop trying to do something great for God and instead ask him what he is doing. That is what Jesus did – not his own thing but what the Father was doing. As Wayne Jacobsen says, ‘I used to start my day laying out my plans before God and seeking his blessing on them. How silly! Why would I want God to be the servant of my agenda? God’s plans for my day far exceed mine. I can almost hear him now as I awaken: “Wayne, I’m going to touch some people today. Do you want to come along?”

It’s amazing how gentle that is, but all the more powerful because it is.  I don’t have to go. God’s work won’t be thwarted by my lack of participation. He will touch people anyway, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world. He does things I’ve never dreamed of and uses me in ways I could never conceive. His focus on touching people instead of managing programs has revolutionized my view of ministry. It requires no less diligence on my part but directs that diligence in far more fruitful endeavours.