Dear Friends,
You and I are in the ministry of training counsellors and offering counselling. As ministers of God, we are acutely aware of our limitations. If something good happens, I sometimes wonder that that good has happened inspite of me not because of me! Being able to touch lives, seeing them transform is a gift of God.
Yet we fret constantly as to how best we could keep working and improve our effectiveness. We want to grow in our influence and expand our reach. Which is not wrong. But what I read of C.S. Lewis as reported by Lyle Dorset has piqued my interest: “Never worry about the breadth of your influence, everything about the culture worries about that, instead you worry about the depth of your relationship with Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit will take care of the breadth.”
Isn’t that true? The story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42) proves the point. When the disciples-in-training returned reporting their power and breadth of their influence, Jesus sobered them down to worry only that their names were written in the boom of life (17-24). Jesus taught His disciples by example that they must withdraw (run away) from healing and feeding, preaching, and teaching (all ministry) and spend time in solitude, silence, and prayer (Luke 5:16). We tend to do the opposite – run towards ministry and offer public prayers and crisis prayers. Not much of closet prayers! We must live to pray at all times but minister when necessary.
The prayer of Jabez, asking the Lord to “enlarge my(his) territory,” is recommended to all of us today to enlarge the ministry and influence (1Chr.4:10). But it is important to note that it is God who granted him what he requested. We are reminded to leave the job of enlarging the territory to the Holy Spirit. And we are encouraged to be with the Lord. Isn’t that what we notice in the life of Peter and John when their adversaries realised that their boldness was because they were with Jesus (Acts 4:13)? Their influence increased as they were with Jesus.
I hope to fret less about the breadth of my ministry and increase my depth-time with the Lord. How about you?
Warmly in Christ,
Dr. Samson Gandhi
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Dr. Samson Gandhi Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety. Proverbs 11:14 Covid 19 Pandemic has taken the world by
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