Jun
14
Work and Worship
Filed Under Devotional
I’ve been around churches long enough to see good people get burned out. I think it’s a shame that, on average, a very small percentage of any given congregation is responsible for all of the volunteer work inside the church. However, for those who are doing that work, it can be easy to fall into a dangerous trap: we can be distracted from Jesus by serving. We can let the service overcome our relationship with Christ.
When this happens, you see people get angry and frustrated because other staff and volunteers won’t work with them, because things aren’t getting done, because things aren’t getting done the right way, or because they feel they aren’t getting the proper recognition. The minute the service gets in the way of the relationship, you have a problem.
I can think of two times when Jesus rebuked his followers for being more worried about the service than about the relationship (or, in the case of this first woman, the worship).
“While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.
Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’ And they rebuked her harshly.
‘Leave her alone,’ said Jesus. ‘Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me.’ ” Mark 14:3-7
And again, he rebuked Martha:
“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’
‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’ ” Luke 10:38-42
I believe that underlying these episodes is when the desire to do God’s work overcomes the desire to have a relationship with Him and to worship Him. We are, first and foremost, made to worship Him.
Don’t let your service to Him become a stumbling block in your worship of Him.