God helps us to develop compassion towards other people through the ministry as well

Dear readers, welcome to the column of our “Daily word for spiritual strength”!

I pray to God for each of you, that you might feel thirsty for more of God, His Word, His wisdom and fellowship with Him, because He is the source of life.

Yesterday we mentioned the fact that God eradicates our selfishness through the avenue of ministry. Indeed, ministry helps us to develop a servant’s heart and to prevail over selfishness. In addition, God helps us to develop compassion towards other people through the ministry as well.

It is true that ministry transforms us into the likeness of God. Since God is graceful and compassionate in His essence, then we His children should be able to show to others the grace and compassion of our Heavenly Father and we do that by serving other people. Earlier on, we already mentioned that God’s desire is to transform us into the image and the likeness of Christ so that we can begin to reflect the quality of character that Jesus had. It was Christ who came to reveal God to us so that we can follow in His steps. We know that changes automatically do not occur; changes or transformation happen only as we implement the laws and principles of God into our life. Ministry is one tremendous way we can do that; it is one of the many tools, God uses to mold and transform us into likeness of Christ.

Jesus once said: «…even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”» (Matthew 20:28).

Jesus laid down His life to save human kind due to His love and compassion for us. We become like Him when we show compassion and demonstrate sacrificial living towards other people through our ministry. The more compassion we have the more we can serve people. The more we serve others, the more compassion we will have. It’s a chain reaction. The more love and compassion we have, the more desire to serve other people we have. We may speak of how much we love God and people, but without ministry it’s just an empty sound. Our unwillingness to serve others demonstrates the absence of God’s compassion and love in us.

Compassion can appear in different ways and forms, but in whatever the ways it manifest itself, compassion will always be proved by the way we serve our neighbour. The clue to knowing what God is calling you to do or which ministry He is inviting you into is to check your passion, your heartbeat and you feel compassion for.

For example, some people feel compassion for ill people or those who are sick; therefore, they can’t bypass a sick person without helping him or her in some tangible way. Other people have compassion for those who are in physical or material need. People like these can’t remain indifferent when they see the problems and needs in the life of people around them so they try to become part of the solution whatever it takes from them. Compassion and love urge us to serve our neighbour.

It is important to note that regardless of what you have compassion for or what you are passionate about, we are all called to have compassion towards the perishing world and become passionate about winning lost people back to Christ. Many believers are indifferent to those who do not know God because there is no compassion in their hearts for this category of people.

This kind of compassion was what prompted Jesus to instruct His disciples about praying for those who were going about as lost sheep who has got no shepherd and are therefore scattered and exhausted.

«Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because they were harassed and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd.» (Matthew 9:35-36).

Later, Jesus sent His 12 disciples to the lost sheep. So, ministry helps us to manifest God’s compassion and become more like our Heavenly Father. The level of our spiritual maturity, in turn, is measured by that likeness. If you want to know whether a Christian is growing in God or not look at his life to see if he or she is meeting other people’s needs or just waiting to be served by others.

The fact that a person has been attending church for a long period of time doesn’t testify in any way about his or her spiritual growth. Meanwhile, when you see a believer who has learned to take responsibility for other people, meet the needs of others and share with them rather just staying on the receiving end, then you have found a spiritually growing person. A mature Christian serves and sacrifices himself because his heart is filled with compassion for other people.

We’re going to continue on this thought tomorrow.

Peace be multiplied unto you!

Rufus AJiboye, pastor!