I’ve been sharing lessons with you from the life of Joshua, lessons which God spoke to my heart as I shared them with the pastors I was teaching. First, God showed Joshua that he was not alone. They He reminded him that he was not in charge. God had another lesson for Joshua before He gave him instructions as to how to have victory over Jericho. He told Joshua to take off his sandals because the place he was standing was holy (Joshua 5:15).
God wanted Joshua to be sure he understood that the assignment he was being gives was a sacred trust. It was sacred because it was assigned by God. Every ministry assignment God gives is special and sacred. We judge what we are given by God to do by comparing them to what others do. So inevitably we start thinking someone else has an assignment that is more important than ours. We feel they are better than us. And those who don’t seem to be doing much for God we may look down on as not being as good as us. God was teaching Joshua that his assignment was sacred because it was from God and for no other reason.
If God has entrusted you with an assignment it is sacred. The duties of a wife and mother are no less special than those of a large church pastor. All are sacred because all come from God and are individually assigned. If I feel my contribution to the kingdom is less because I pastor a small church then I am denying the sacredness of what God has anointed for me to do. If you are a wife, a mother, an employee, a teenager or wherever you find yourself in life, and God has given you opportunities to minister to others in any way in His name, that is a sacred ministry.
The implications of this truth are astounding. Whatever God has given you to do for Him is important and special. There are no ‘little’ assignments. What you do for Him is as precious in His sight as what I do, and what I do is as special as the pastor of the largest church in the USA. So don’t feel your work isn’t important, or notices, or appreciated by God. Don’t judge or compare one Christian with another. And especially don’t underestimate the value of the unique contribution God has given YOU in His Kingdom.
1 Corinthians 12:12-26 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
What is the unique contribution you make in the name of Jesus? Whose lives do you touch? What service do you do for Jesus’ sake? Thank Him for these sacred opportunities. If you have not seen it as very important ask God to forgive you for devaluating what He says is special. Recommit yourself to doing the best you can in each responsibility He has given you in life.