Jesus can become more about doing your job than living your life.

I would say that most of us have trouble with boundaries. The line that should be drawn to switch on and off are often muddled into the busyness of life and we can no longer differentiate when we are working and when we aren't.

While in ministry I have an excellent opportunity. In essence, I am paid to love Jesus and lead people in a relationship with Him. My job is easier and more fulfilling the more I am involved in the relationship with Jesus but my job is dependent upon my relationship with Jesus. That relationship can quickly if I am looked to "do my job."

I found when getting into ministry that a great majority of my time was directed at finding material for Wednesday or Sundays or for some other venue that I was speaking at. My Biblical intake became more about accomplishing a task or "doing my job" than about being with Jesus and learning from Him.

I would also spend time in prayer but it was rarely personal. It was more the ministry, the church, the people and the like. It became less and less about Jesus and Justin and more about Jesus and the ministry that Justin is involved in.

Worship became filled with a "to do" list. It would be rare for me to simply be with Jesus, there was always something to be done, someone to minister with or some direction to go for the group.

At some point, I asked myself if this was what Jesus really had in mind when I got into ministry. When He saw me fulfilling a role within the church, did it look like carrying out my role with Him professionally or was my profession an expression of my person? When the shift took place, in my heart I could tell there was something different. I could feel within that I was living out more of the plan.

For those of us who have "jobs" within the church, we can quickly make the work of the LORD more about accomplishing a task and less about expressing the truth of Jesus within us. I'm all about fulfilling roles and contributing to the body, but when that becomes how we are sustained instead of an overflow from our hearts, you will find yourself quickly dry and distant.

My life with the LORD had become infinitely greater when there are significant portions of my day given to being with Him if only to be with Him. No intentions. No goals. No tasks. Just a follower of Christ spending time with Him because he is redeemed and reconciled. Not because he needs "material" but because the relationship with Him is far greater when he is set on Him and not on working for Him (are you tracking with all my he, He, him, Him?). May all of us who serve the church / Church, seek to set Him as the goal, not what needs to be done in order to do our job well.
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Now playing: Misty Edwards - Always On His Mind