[06/10/2023 “teEn-MAIL”]
The longer I have engaged in ministry the more I continue to realize it is God Who opens doors and provides the strength and resources to remain engaged. Looking back I see so many facets of ministry which had never been in my own personal plans, but which arose and I was led into. With many of those opportunities I have been drawn to wonder who was I and what did I have to offer that I should be drawn into such. However, even when there has been some apprehension in being stretched relative to a sense of my own comfort zone or wondering about my personal qualifications for involvement, I have prayed for God to use me and the opportunities as He would enable. All of this has drawn my mind to where it needs to rest and that is the true source of competency or sufficiency in ministry; it does not rest merely with me.
In view of those who make more of human undertakings than they should, Paul reminded Christians at Corinth. . .
“(5) What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. (6) I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. (7) So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-7 ESV)
Works of ministry are successful not when they are merely works of our own doing, but when they are workings together with God! (1 Corinthians 3:9) Though human energy and willingness are involved, it is God who provides fruitfulness from the labors as it is His Work of which we are servants entrusted to faithfully serve in accordance with His Will!
In his second letter to these Christians, Paul raised a question of sufficiency where we read. . .
“(15) For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, (16) to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? (17) For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 2:15-17 ESV)
Paul’s life of ministry was certainly marked by diligence and self-sacrifice. (i.e. 1 Corinthians 9:22-23; 2 Corinthians 11:23-29; Philippians 2:17; 2 Timothy 4:6-7) However, the sufficiency of being the aroma of Christ as He shared the Gospel and lived to glorify Christ was not merely in and of himself. Therefore, Paul would go on to state. . .
“(5) Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, (6) who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:5-6 ESV)
The root word in these passages is the Greek “hikanos” which refers to “competency” and “sufficiency” and literally signifies “enoughness”. [source: W.E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of N.T. Words] It is God Who makes us competent and worthy and to find “enoughness” to be used in His work. Humbly bearing this in mind opens our life more to the usefulness God can bring wherever we might be. May we allow God to lead us where He desires and can use us, as we continue trusting Him for the “enoughness” of carrying out His work!
Have a great day TRUSTING GOD’S SUFFICIENCY IN DOING HIS WORK!
Carl
