Recently the Lord has been impressing on my heart the feelings of insufficiency and inadequacy which are felt by so many women who want to be involved in the Lord’s work, but really don’t know where or how they fit in. Often, they feel they aren’t spiritually mature, they don’t have enough experience, or they just don’t know what, if any, gifts God has given them to use in ministry work. I often hear women give these very reasons for not participating. What’s more, some women do know where they could be used, but because of a failure in their past, they feel unworthy, unusable, or just unsure of themselves.

You can be sure Satan works hard to keep us focused on ourselves and our inadequacies, not on God’s long-suffering, compassionate, gracious, and merciful love (see Psalm 86:15). Like Martha in Luke 10, these women are distracted by all the things they have in their mind that need to take place before they can enjoy close fellowship and service with the Lord. Satan sees to it that their minds are busy with the things of the world, and that they use the wisdom of the world in their thinking. However, we who are Christians, can think with the "mind of Christ" because we have the Spirit of God in us (see 1 Corinthians 2:12-16). We can think with the mind of Christ because it is a gift which is given to us when we receive Jesus as our Savior. But like any gift, whether we choose to use it, or not, is entirely up to us.

The more I serve the Lord, the closer our fellowship and the deeper my relationship with Him grows. I have found that I get more practice using the mind of Christ when I am serving Him. When I’m not serving, my relationship with Him begins to dry up, and I begin to think with the mindset of the world. This makes perfect sense; we hear most clearly the voices of those who are nearer to us. Whose voice are you listening to today? Are you hearing words taught by human wisdom or words taught by the Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 2:13)?

© Tammie 2005

Posted by Tammie at 8:46 PM