Published: 2023

The truth of the matter is that there is no difference between the commitment we should have as a minister as opposed to being a believer, however, as a ministers we have been specially consecrated for this work and so there’s really no going back. Due to this it appears that more is required of us.

In as much as it could be arguable that the possibility of a minister not being committed may not really exist in this Church, it’s still good from time to time to look back and re-evaluate where we stand in our commitment to God’s work and probably ask ourselves: “Why we do what we do?”, and a second question could be, “Why we do what we do…The Way We Do It?”

As we all know JHDC runs like an organization, there’s never really a dull moment and everyone’s involvement is really key.

So how does one stay committed as a minister?

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

4 “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.[a] 5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. 6 And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.

7 Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. 8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The above scripture gives us a break down of what it means to be committed to God and to his work…

Verse 4…Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.

This verse makes it clear that God does not want anything else to compete with Him in our lives and our commitment to Him. He is God Alone!

Verse 5…And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

It’s hard to commit to someone or something that you don’t love, and I don’t think anyone in this room will say they don’t love the Lord; however, love always needs to be re-kindled, because life happens and our hearts do grow a bit callous due to the daily grind in life. God wants us to love Him with everything that we’ve got!

Our Heart speaks of our spirit or passion by which we serve him.
Our Soul speaks of how we apply our selves to His service, (e.g. the use of our Intellect, Talents, Creativity etc).
Our Strength speaks of the energy in which we serve; it refers to our Physical, Mental and Spiritual strength!

So to be committed we must…

Understand the Work that we have been called to do…

Verse 6…And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.

Committment requires Focus and Energy!!!

Another word for focus is vision…

Verse 7-9 emphasizes the importance of constantly having the vision of the work that we have been commanded to do before our eyes.

Like I mentioned earlier, strength refers to our Physical, Mental and Spiritual strength!

So, how does a minister stay committed?

Focus

“8 Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders”

Stay focused on the vision…

Physical Strength

“7 Repeat them again and again to your children”.

Physical Strength is the physical energy that we need to exert as we carry out our works in the ministry as well as every other area in life. And of course since we are human beings this kind of strength has its limits…

Duplicate yourself (Clone)… Don’t just delegate, rather duplicate!

Sometimes we tend to delegate the “small stuff” and leave the big stuff for ourselves, eventually we discover that we are overwhelmed with a volume of work and end doing just anything instead of something of excellence.
One of our focuses this year is Mentoring & Succession, we don’t expect the quality of what we do to drop as we continue to raise up new leaders, we must be confident to challenge them to greater heights and expect them to commit to it – You will be amazed at the results that you will get. Trust me, NO ONE IS INDISPENSABLE!!!

Mental Strength

“Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates”.

Mental Strength is essential as there are many stress factors in life (e.g. work, family, ministry, personal life etc). These things drain our strength and reduce our productivity and creativity.

Re-Engineer!!! Make serving in the ministry an exciting adventure…

A lot of the things we do most times require mundane repetitions, so we must constantly take time to think and come up with new ways of doing the same thing. This could be hard, but the absence of this leads quickly to burnout and lack of commitment.
Re-engineering brings freshness and new sense of motivation for you and your team.
Involve your team (where necessary) to come up with creative new ways of doing things
A little bit of fun never hurt anybody!

Spiritual Strength

Spiritual Strength is of a necessity because to be able to sustain oneself in a work that is spiritual, there are really no short cuts! It’s either you got the stuff or you don’t! (Prayer, The Word, The Holy Spirit, Godly Fellowship etc.)

Build Spiritual Capacity

We must continue to look for avenues to express and exercise our spiritual gifts. This brings more confidence to our work because as ministers we never want to wear a title that is not backed up with spiritual works!!!
Don’t trade your personal time with God for anything
Take time to reflect on your spiritual life and growth and make adjustments
Set spiritual goals for yourself
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:20: “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power”.

Deuteronomy 6:10-11

The reward of our commitment

10 “The Lord your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. 11 The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land…”

As we continue to commit our hearts to serve God, He will go ahead of us…

Let us pray…

Lord, please give us as ministers, focus & strength to say committed to You and to Your Work!

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