All too often, we make the mistake of becoming intimidated right out of doing the Lord’s work. Why do we make such a mistake? What leads us to thinking we cannot do the Lord’s work?
Firstly, many have fallen into the habit of thinking that ‘the Lord’s work’ is difficult and requires many talents (kind of like the one talent man). Then, we end up hiding our talent and not using it, so we lose the talent. Truth be known, a person with only one talent can do the Lord’s work.
Secondly, we live in a culture that believes that only elders, deacons, preachers and Bible class teachers are the ones appointed to do the Lord’s work and the rest of us are to be spectators. God makes the point over and over again in Scripture that each one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Let’s realize that we are all God’s servants, and we each need to do our fair share or our part in the kingdom of God. That is why in 1 Corinthians 12, the church is likened to a body. That great chapter makes the point that the foot is no less a part of the body than the hand or the head. The seemingly less important body parts have purposes, and also the seemingly less important church members have their places in the church of God.
Thirdly, there are those who believe that we cannot learn to do the Lord’s work, and that since we cannot learn it, we should avoid it. Jesus trained His apostles; they in turn trained others who could train others and so on (2 Timothy 2:2). We nowhere in Scripture read of an apostle or God making any demands upon any human being that were over and above the human being’s capabilities.
In conclusion, in the final Day of Judgment, if you remember the parable of the talents, it is neither about how much you did, nor is it about how much potential you had or how much you could have done, but did you do what you could and as much as you could to the best of your ability. Let us do what we can now so that we can have Heaven forever.
