The Life of the Christian Worker
Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 6:3–10
“Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed: But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings,” 2 Corinthians 6:3–5.
The Life of the Christian Worker
O Lord, be magnified in our lives. Lord today, we pray for the grace to walk with you and serve you.
In 2 Corinthians 6:3–10, Paul offers a description of what the Christian minister, the Christian worker should be doing. I believe that everyone who has given their life to the Lord Jesus Christ, who believes in the Lord God Almighty and the atonement that Jesus secured for us with His precious blood, should be now ministering to the Saviour. We learn how to do this by studying those who have done it before.
Paul said we should give no offense in anything; that the ministry, our ministry, our work for God, should not give offense. My prayer is that every area where the enemy has set up an offense, that the grace of God will give you the ability to bring it down, that your ministry will not be discredited in the name of Jesus.
What are the abilities expected of you as a Christian who walks with Jesus Christ? Let us look at three characteristics that are important for a Christian worker.
The first characteristic is the ability to listen. As Christians it is time for us to serve and how can we minister except we hear? We need to pray that God will bless us with the ability to listen, to hear what people are saying, to hear what they are not saying even while they are speaking, and to hear what their spirit is saying. Pray today, “Lord bless me with a clear mind. Remove my prejudices in Jesus’ name. Give me an open mind so I can hear from man and hear from you for them in Jesus’ name.”
The second characteristic of our walk as ministers is love. Paul tells us we must be approving ourselves as ministers, “By pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the Word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,” 2 Corinthians 6:6–7. Pray that God will make us a lover of men, not just people in our comfort zone. May God give us the grace to look at those society rejects and know that Jesus died for them and that each has a soul and a spirit. Let the love of God transmit from us who have received Jesus to reach the world. May God give us the grace to rescue the perishing, to care for the dying, to snatch them in pity not in judgment, to pull them from the grave in the name of
Long-suffering is the third characteristic needed. In 2 Corinthians 6:8–10 Paul says, “By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” May God give us the grace in all these to have a mind to suffer, like Jesus did, for our
If you serve God you are going to face rejection. It is part of the suffering, but God will give you the grace to love and see people not in terms of their actions but as those for whom Jesus died. If we continue in love, if we agree to go through all it takes to suffer, to have a mind to suffer for the gospel, we will bring people to Christ.
Let us pray that God will bless us with the character of His worker. You might say, “I do not have any position in a church. I’m not in any ministry. I’m not a minister.” I say to you that you are a minister. If you were not a minister, you would not be saved; you would not be among those who are called for His purpose. Before you were born God called you. He ordained you to minister, to preach, and to reach the lost even as you were reached.
Prayer Points:
Lord, bless us with the ability to listen. Many of us are great talkers, but we do not know how to listen. I pray today that God will give us the gift of the listening ear, the grace to hear beyond the sound and beyond our oppressive responses. O Lord, give us the grace to hear what people are saying and what they are not saying in the name of Jesus.
Bless us with a clear mind, that all of our prejudices, our racial attitudes, our attitudes of division, and our denominational attitudes be removed. O Father, bless us with the mindset of your workers. Make us lovers of men, O Lord, because you loved all of us so much that you gave your only begotten Son not just for us but also for the world.
Bless us with the mind to go through all it will take to be your ministers in the name of Jesus. May God give us that love that is neither pretentious nor judgmental. May God give us the grace to give as we were given. May God give us the grace to reach the lost.
