Discern the essential from the nonessential.
And
primary motivators
I just finished day 1 of the @YouVersion plan ‘The Ministry Of Excellence’. Check it out here:
http://bible.com/r/3dS
Here is a part of it:
Excellence in All Things
One of my favorite descriptions of Jesus comes from Mark 7:37 where it says “People were overwhelmed with amazement. ‘He [Jesus] has done everything well.’”
As followers of Christ, this passage should give us great pause.
So, pause
Selah
Reflect
Imagine
Seeking to imitate Jesus in every way imaginable.
The fact is that all of us have areas of our lives where we are falling short of Jesus’s excellent standard.
I think this is truer today than ever before.
Why?
Because now more than ever, we believe the lies that we have to do it all, be it all, and have it all. We are overcommitted, overwhelmed, and overstressed, making a millimeter of progress in a million directions because we fail to discern the essential from the nonessential in our work and in our homes. This is a recipe for mediocrity, not excellence, and I would argue the problem is epidemic in the Church today.
Truly, anything less than excellence falls short of the standard we Christians have been called to.
In 1 Corinthians 10:31, Paul writes,
“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
The late great pastor Dr. James Kennedy used to paraphrase this passage, calling his congregation to “excellence in all things and all things to God’s glory.”
That is the standard we are called to.
There are many good reasons to pursue excellence in all things, especially in our chosen work.
Excellence in our vocations advances our careers, makes us winsome to the world, grants us influence, and can lead to opportunities to share the gospel.
But none of these good things should be the primary motivators for us as we pursue excellence in our work and the other roles God has called us to fulfill in our lives.
We pursue excellence for a much more fundamental purpose—because excellence is how we best reflect the character of Christ and love and serve our neighbors as ourselves.
In other words, excellence is our most everyday form of ministry.
Glorify God and love others well through whatever you do.
Romans 12:1-3 MSG
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you:
Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.
Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you.
Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No,
God brings it all to you.
The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what HE does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
Romans 12:1-3 MSG
https://bible.com/bible/97/rom.12.1-3.MSG
Discern the essential from the nonessential.
And our
primary motivators.
tombeetlebailey 