The opportunity to serve in His Name

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus. This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:12-16 There are people that continue to hesitate serving God because of their actions in the past. They think that their sinful acts disqualify them to be called by God and serve Him. This is not the case with the Apostle Paul. From the text, he expressed how grateful he was to God who allowed him to experience His saving grace, the same grace that afforded him the opportunity to serve God. Flaws and with all his shortcomings, God enabled him to receive forgiveness and now with the life that he has in Christ, He can honor and glorify Him. Everything in his life changed when he came to know Christ as his Lord and Savior. Because of his gratefulness to God, the passion he demonstrated in the past persecuting believers is also the fervency he had shown serving God. No matter how big or little the opportunity God opened for him to serve, he was faithful. His faithfulness was rewarded by God by entrusting to him more opportunities to share the gospel. He became one of the main advocates of expanding the kingdom of God to places where no one has ventured in the past. Your motivations and actions to serve God now should not be based on how you live your life in the past before you came to surrender your life to God. Just like Paul, your willingness to be used by God for his glory depends in your faithfulness to Him today. Every opportunity that He opens for you to serve or to minister in His Name is a privilege that you did not deserve. But because of His grace, He made you trustworthy. Pray and ask God that He will enable you to be faithful so that your life becomes an expression of His wonderful grace. Wherever you are right now, regardless of the size of the opportunity to serve in His Name, make it count. “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities” (Luke 16:10).

Blessings.