Series: From Pastor’s Desk
Number: Vol. 14, No. 31
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours without measure from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I welcome you with gladness to the last day of the eleventh month of this year.
My prayer is that the new month we are moving into in the week will be sweet for us in every way, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now, as we begin this new week, I want to encourage you to always watch how you relate to anyone who has devoted himself to ministry in the kingdom of God, so that you will not make them abandon their ministry. Can we actually make people abandon the ministries God has given them?
Yes, we can. And it is not only those who are church members that can make servants of God abandon their ministries; church leaders like them can also make them abandon their ministries.For example, when a new pastor was brought to a church I used to attend, the first thing he did was to reduce the stipends being paid to all the staff that were working in the office of that church.
Why? His reason was that they were not doing enough to be earning the amount that they were being paid by the previous pastor. But what the previous pastor was paying those staff was not even up to what their counterparts working outside were being paid. And he was paying them as much as he was paying them so that they would not at any point begin to feel that the reason they could not take adequate care of themselves and their families was that they were working for God. But this new pastor just spoilt everything.
So, before long, a good number of those working in that church office began to leave. And were they leaving because they did not love God or because they did not want to serve Him? No! The reason they came to work in the church office and did not go to start their own businesses or work with some other companies was that they loved God and wanted to serve Him. But when they realized that their pastor was not concerned about their welfare at all, they began to leave. And it was better that they left like that than to stay and be grumbling.In any case, because they left in that manner, the work that they were doing began to suffer.
Not only that, others who saw how they were treated did not feel encouraged to come to work in the church office. That was because they did not want to experience the same thing. But who made those people abandon their ministries? It was their church leader. And only God knows how many all around the world have been made to abandon their ministries in that manner by their church leaders.
So, it is not only church members that can make servants of God abandon their ministries; church leaders can also make them abandon their ministries. And where that is the case, certain things that God wants to do in people’s lives will surely suffer for a while.
Yes, those things will suffer until He is able to find new servants to encourage to begin to do them.As we see in the bible, during the time of Nehemiah, the work of God also began to suffer at some point because the Jews and their leaders made many of the Levites serving in the temple to abandon their ministries.
How? Look at what Nehemiah himself says in the bible about it:“I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and singers responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts. All Judah brought the tithes of grain, new wine and oil into the storerooms.” (Neh 13:10-12NIV)
Did you see that? Because the people refused to take care of the Levites and singers serving them in God’s temple, they left the work of God and went back to their farms and businesses. And who do you think would suffer more for that? The people themselves! They were the ones that would not be experiencing the blessings associated with the ministries of those Levites and singers as they should. And if Nehemiah had not intervened in time, only God knows how to what extent the prosperity, peace and health of their nation would have been affected because of what they were doing.
Now, of course, it is not only by not adequately supporting the servants of God among us with our money that we can make them abandon their ministries. We can also make them abandon their ministries by saying discouraging words to them, lying against them or inciting rebellion against them. And when we do so, we can be sure that we will hinder the work God wants to do through them in our lives and in the lives of others. Will God, then, praise us for that? No!
Instead, He will most likely punish us. And that may not be pleasant at all.So, let us check ourselves carefully and be sure that we are not doing anything to make any servant of God abandon his ministry. And may God strengthen us to do the right thing about this matter before it is too late. Amen.
Have a lovely week.
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