HIS PERFECT MINISTRY

This season has been marked by a stretching found in the growing pains and refining fires of ministry.

I am slowly learning that saying “yes” to ministry comes with saying “yes” to people — Saying “yes” to Christ within them, and also saying “yes” to the brokenness of the flesh. This has meant working through daily repentance with one another, keeping short accounts, covering others with the abundant grace of the Father, relinquishing personal preferences, and bearing a love that hopes all things.

This kind of “yes” is beyond any self-sufficient tendency that we cling to to sustain ourselves. It requires a continual, growing, and dependent humility; Acknowledging firstly who we are and what we have in Him. 

This past Summer, I have been equally comforted and and convicted by the ministry of Jesus. His ministry was perfect, and if it was perfect, even in the coexistence of our flesh, there truly is none greater to behold. As I long to be more like Him when walking through the ebbs and flows of ministry, I have been meditating on His time on earth and allowing it to renew my mind. One of the sweetest passages for me as I’ve been learning this is from John 13.

Before Jesus goes so low as to wash His disciples’ feet, an act of pure servitude, it says in verse 3 that He knew “that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God.” Jesus knew exactly who He was. He knew exactly what He had. He knew exactly where He came from. He knew exactly where He was returning. He knew that the end of all things on this side of eternity was this: Being back with the Father. And more than knowing all of these things, He was fully secure in it; Such security allows us to die all the more.

I have been walking in this conviction the entire Summer. There is no reservation, fear, or striving in what I do when I immerse myself in the truth of who I am in Him, what I have in Him, and where I’ll be returning at the end. It births a deeper love for and fear of God that refines my leadership and servanthood with fire.

Jesus, knowing that the Father had handed all things over to Him, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God, got up from supper and laid His outer garments aside; and He took a towel and tied it around Himself.
Then He poured water into the basin, and began washing the disciples’ feet and wiping them with the towel which He had tied around Himself.
John 13:3-5