This post is from Section III of our Investing Challenge.
This challenge to invest has certainly accomplished its purpose in my life!
As I’ve thought about this topic over and over again for the past few weeks, I remember SO MANY ways in which others have invested in me, I have invested in others, and how I can continue to invest in that which will produce the greatest fruit. I am so grateful for all the truths shared here and I am sure all of you have been challenged in certain areas of your life whether it is investing time, money, words, etc.
One particular issue the Lord has challenged me in is not so much where, what, or how much I am investing but simply how I am investing. I feel like I have been blind-sided by God because I never would have thought that the area of life I had this issue in was church ministry. (I teach a Sunday school class.) Again, the issue is not “How much am I doing in church ministry?” My family and I have been heavily involved in various types of church ministry for many years. The problem I have is that I have not been living Colossians 3:23 in church ministry. It says, “And whatever you do, do it heartily…” The Lord asked me, “Ian, are you putting your whole heart into this?” I had to reply, “Well… no.” Maybe I got the idea that I could only put part of my heart into this because I had other parts of my heart in other things I did to invest in God’s kingdom. WHAT A LIE!!! God brought to mind II Corinthians 9:6. “… He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” I have been sowing, but I have been doing it half-heartedly. I had to confess this to the Lord and repent.
I want to encourage each of you to ask yourself what you are doing “heartily” and what you are doing “half-heartedly” whether it is Christian ministry, school, work, chores, anything. No longer will I lackadaisically fulfill my commitment to check off the box of church ministry. I know that doing this will not be easy, but I am purposing to invest in church ministry with my whole heart, holding nothing back.
~ Ian B.
Wow! So true!! God has been convicting me of the same thing in my family. My family is still my biggest ministry for the Kingdom. Am I serving my family in sincerity, joyfully and with my whole heart, or am I trudging through each day, grudgingly doing each task, not out of love, but out of compulsion? Just because I put my whole heart into my relationship with God or other discipleship ministries, doesn’t excuse my lack of whole-heartedness in serving my family. “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”