To Listen is to Love.
Just one question: Do you have ears to hear and a heart to love?
Good. You’re ready to be a missionary. Sometimes we can over complicate things in life. A while back I learned that being a missionary is just being a woman on a mission for Jesus wherever I go. Whether at home, at school, at the grocery store or in Africa. More recently I have been learning that it’s not what I do for God, but who I am in God that matters. With a go-getters mentality, I wanted to see the world changed for Jesus… I wanted to do things for God. It was always GO GO GO… but now I am learning to take a different approach, to wait on God, to rest and to seek. To take every day at a time. To love every individual, in every moment, one at a time. To listen to them, and to love them.
So often Christians get discouraged in ministry, thinking “I don’t have what it takes”, “I’m not skilled enough”, “I haven’t had the proper training”. But I reckon you only need two things to minister effectively to people-- ears to hear and a heart to love.
Jesus summed up all of the law in two commandments in Matthew 22.“You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: love your neighbor as yourself”.
Jesus also said that to love him is to obey his commands. (John 14:21)
As Jesus went out into the streets he was always looking for the one. He had ears to hear God, and a heart to obey. He listened to God, and only did what he saw his Father doing and said what he heard his Father saying. If you notice, he goes straight up to people as God leads, and calls them out by name. He listens to God. He listens to what’s on God’s heart for that person. He sees past the surface and loves them. Listens and validates their story, but also loves them enough to call them out of a life of sin and suffering into a life of surrender and change following him.
As I went out into the streets of Capetown the other night, I realized that my approach to ministry had completely changed. I wasn’t so much worried about what to do or say, I was not pressured to perform. I just went out as me… and listened to God, praying for this city. And as I listened to people’s stories, and as I listened to God… and as I loved people as they shared their stories, out of the love of God… God changed lives. Because it was no longer about me. I was out of the picture. I was just merely a vessel and as a result as my team and I walked through the street others encountered the living God.
*Remember, when you listen and love on one person at a time, in the end… you are ministering to the masses.
So often Christians get discouraged in ministry, thinking “I don’t have what it takes”, “I’m not skilled enough”, “I haven’t had the proper training”. But I reckon you only need two things to minister effectively to people-- ears to hear and a heart to love.
Jesus summed up all of the law in two commandments in Matthew 22.“You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: love your neighbor as yourself”.
Jesus also said that to love him is to obey his commands. (John 14:21)
As Jesus went out into the streets he was always looking for the one. He had ears to hear God, and a heart to obey. He listened to God, and only did what he saw his Father doing and said what he heard his Father saying. If you notice, he goes straight up to people as God leads, and calls them out by name. He listens to God. He listens to what’s on God’s heart for that person. He sees past the surface and loves them. Listens and validates their story, but also loves them enough to call them out of a life of sin and suffering into a life of surrender and change following him.
As I went out into the streets of Capetown the other night, I realized that my approach to ministry had completely changed. I wasn’t so much worried about what to do or say, I was not pressured to perform. I just went out as me… and listened to God, praying for this city. And as I listened to people’s stories, and as I listened to God… and as I loved people as they shared their stories, out of the love of God… God changed lives. Because it was no longer about me. I was out of the picture. I was just merely a vessel and as a result as my team and I walked through the street others encountered the living God.
*Remember, when you listen and love on one person at a time, in the end… you are ministering to the masses.
