Last week I shared with you how the Lord is asking me to do a better job of setting boundaries and priorities for my life and ministry. If you missed that post, you can go here to read it. As a result of this work that He is doing in me, I have had to examine the activities in which I am involved and see if they fit into His priorities for my life at this moment in time. The primary activity that I have agreed with Him that needs to go right now is the position that I hold in our church as Women’s Ministry Director.
I have held this position for two years and have enjoyed every minute (well, almost every minute) of it. I love helping women develop a more intimate walk with Jesus. The Women’s Ministry Council at our church is comprised of an awesome group of ladies who love Jesus and desire for other ladies to fall in love with Him as well. The backbone of our Women’s Ministry has been the offering of a wide variety of ladies’ Bible studies. In our winter session, we offered a different Bible study for ladies every day of the week except for Friday and Saturday. I believe with all my heart that Jesus was pleased with that.
As I wrestled (and oh, did I wrestle) with the decision to step down from the Director’s position, I had to delve deeper into my heart and examine the motives behind my reluctance to be obedient to what the Lord was asking. This was not the activity that I had anticipated the Lord asking me to give up and it was not really the one that I desired to give up.
Those of you who know me personally know that I am not shy about being in the limelight and being in charge. When I took the personality test at the CLASS seminar I attended last year, I was so strongly choleric that it was frightening. I’m sure I frighten a lot of people with my take-charge ways. Nonetheless, I am what I am and I am learning to operate within my strengths and give my weaknesses to the Lord. Being choleric is a strength as well as a weakness, believe me.
In mulling over the Lord’s request to step down as Director of Women’s Ministry I had to answer the question of whether I liked the position because it allowed me to minister to women or because it allowed me to be in the limelight. Ouch, ouch, ouch.
If you saw the “Lord of the Rings” series, you might remember Gollum, the strange creature that followed the boys around because he desired to possess the ‘Ring’ more than anything else. He called it his ‘Precious.’ It consumed him, it motivated him, and he was willing to fight and die in the pursuit of it.
I had to ask myself, in regard to the Women’s Ministry Director’s position, whether it was my ‘precious’. You see, only Jesus should be our ‘Precious’ and nothing other than Jesus. Not a position, not a ministry, not a person, not our money, not our husband, not our children—nothing other than Jesus should be our “Precious”. Jesus, and Jesus alone should be what consumes us, what motivates us and what we are willing to fight and die in the pursuit of.
What is your “Precious” today? Make certain it is Jesus and only Jesus!!
