Ministry changes a selfish person into a loving, compassionate servant of the Lord

ByPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 5 minutes
Greetings to you, dear friends! Grace and peace to you from Father God and our Lord Jesus Christ! We discussed earlier that the main purpose of any ministry is to bring to people the good news of the Gospel of the Kingdom and to lead people to God Who is the Source of life and power. If you are not involved in ministry then there are some areas of your life where you won’t see any changes no matter how fervent you pray. This is because ministry is one of the instruments God uses to change us. How does ministry affect our lives? One sure way ministry affects our life is that: Ministry changes a selfish person into a loving, compassionate servant of the Lord. It is not a secret that we are all born selfish. Someone might argue and say that does not apply to him or that he is not selfish. If you say that then you are lying! We are all selfish, except the transforming grace of God! What does it mean to be selfish? · A selfish person is one who lives only for himself. He only cares about his world and does not notice what is happening to others around him. A selfish person is only concerned about his life and his comforts. · A selfish person is focused on solving only his own problems; the problems of others do not exist for him. · A selfish person uses God and people to solve his problems and to meet his needs. He does not care about the problems God and other people might have; he has no time or desire to help. He thinks like this: «God can solve His own problems; I don’t need to get involved. I just want my problems solved». Can you imagine what would happen to all of us if everybody in our world thought and lived like that? Praise God that He has shown us a completely different lifestyle in Christ Jesus! Quite often selfishness finds its way into our families and our relationships with other people. For example, some people make friends only with those they can use for some gain. I hope that when you became a child of God, you got rid of that type of approach to friendship. When we learn to minister to others and serve people, we are delivered from selfishness through that. Our motivation for making friends is love and the desire to bless and enrich the lives of our friends rather than seeking some personal. God asked: «Cain, where is your brother?» Cain answered God and said: «Am I my brother’s keeper? » You know what that mean? It means Cain is not concern about what happened to his brother. He had just killed his brother and was still demonstrating total indifference. Cain was only interested in how to get what he wanted. A selfish person is not concerned with other people’s needs and feelings. He is ready to get what he wants no matter the cost, even the cost of another person’s life. A selfish person thinks that the only thing that really matter in this life is he and his needs. You know why Cain killed his brother? He did it out of sheer selfishness. Selfish person’s heart is filled with malice towards others. Malice, cruelty, deceit, manipulation and other similar things are the fruit of selfishness. A selfish person is willing to use anything and anybody to reach his goals. If it takes manipulation, he will manipulate. If it takes slander, he will slander. He likes to put down others and climb up using them as steps; he does not care about helping anybody or lifting them up (increasing their value). All a selfish person care about is getting his own way and he has many ways to accomplish that. I believe we are familiar with those ways because before we encountered God we were all typical egotists. «I, me, my….» – is the egotist’s „unholy trinity”. Egotistic people cannot serve others; and even if they do, it is because they have some personal interest or agenda. A selfish person does not know what true biblical ministry is. However, there is a remedy to egoistic way of life. The only way for us to get rid of our selfishness is through ministry. Why? Because through ministry God teaches us to think of others first and only then think of ourselves. Through ministry God teaches us to think how we can be a blessing to others. Ministry helps us to become a keeper and a watchman over our brothers and sisters and drive us to help the people around us. Through of ministry I subdue my ‘self life’ or my selfishness and I begin to help others to resolve their problems and to meet their needs. So, through ministry God kills the selfishness that is inherent in us. The more we serve God and other people, the faster selfishness disappears from our lives. Ministry helps us to grow a servant’s heart and to eliminate selfishness from our lives. When you serve God and people, it fills your life with meaning and happiness! I wish you God’s abundant blessings this day! Pastor Rufus Ajiboye

Similar Posts

  • If you will not initiate changes, they will never happen in your life

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 2 minutes
    It is time to know that changes are initiated rather than expected. Changes do not happen by chance, they happen because someone initiated them. When it was dark and void all around, God initiated change by introducing light. He said “Let there be light”.“In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water. Then God commanded, “Let there be light”—and light appeared” (Gen.1: 1-3)

  • The lordship of Jesus Christ V

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    «All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…» (Mathew, 28:18-19).Jesus told us to walk through this life, being armed with the understanding that all God’s authority is behind us. The will of God for us contains prosperity, health, salvation (both for us personally and for our families), peace and harmony; the will of God is for all people to come to salvation and knowledge of truth. But too often we see discrepancies in many areas of our life. Those areas where the will of God is not fulfilled are actually ruled by the devil; somehow we have given him a place and control over these areas.

  • The forms of accountability in the life of a Christian

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    (1) Teacher – apprentice.We see examples of this type of relationship in Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, Paul and Timothy. This form of accountability implies having a disciple or apprentice that you invest yourself into helping him to grow in God. This type of relationship means that a teacher is responsible for his disciple and the disciple submits to his teacher. It helps both teachers and disciples to grow in Jesus Christ and walk in submission to the Lord.

  • Jesus came into this world that he might destroy the works of the devil and he might reveal God´s works

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    «He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, that he might destroy the works of the devil.» (1st John 3:8).The devil inflicts pain, steals, murder and annihilate people, but God comes in Christ and manifests His power and mercy. In Christ God heals the sick, forgives sins, restores people lives, frees from curse and obsession by demons. A little later we will discuss the details about devil as a source of distress and sufferings people may have. Today I would like you to note that sins of other people also represent a source of pain and suffering.

  • Presence of God V

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 4 minutes
    God so desires for us to seek Him early in the morning. He so desires for us to return to Him. He wants to heal us and to bind up our wounds. God so wants to revive and restore us, so that we could live before Him. When we seek the Lord, when we seek to know Him, He comes and immerses us into His presence; He pours out His rain on us and waters the earth.Yesterday we talked about how Moses set up a tabernacle outside the camp for all seekers of the Lord. We also saw that instead of entering the tabernacle and seeking the face of the Lord, Israelites were simply observing how Moses spoke to God and how God answered Moses.

  • The wisdom of repentance

    AutorsPastor Rufus Ajiboye Reading Time: 3 minutes
    We do not confess our sins to the Lord it affects our blessings. In the Scripture above it says that „for day and night Your hand was heavy upon me…” Heaviness of the Lord’s hand – it is not a sign of blessing; it is a sign of curse. An unrepentant life takes away an opportunity to move forward in any area of our lives. When we refuse to repent we lose vitality and power and drought comes instead. Vitality is a sign of a blessing, prosperity, but drought is a sign of curse. According to the Bible, in order for us to flourish and prosper and to gain riches we must have vitality or power (Deuteronomy, 8:18). The lack of repentance in a person’s life deprives him of this power.