Multiplied Ministry Opportunities

Now I have a list of 15 women who want to receive discipleship material by mail. How easily ministry opportunities multiply!

In the old days, I would have lived by the rule of self-preservation. "Don't love too much. Don't get too involved. Don't offer to do something that will take too much of your time. Don't commit to doing a task, because that's overwhelming."

But now I live by the rule of obedience. "Do what the Lord calls you to do. Love with all your heart--you won't run out of love as long as it's coming from the infinite source of God. Be willing to get involved. Be willing to care. Be willing to write 15 letters.

In the old days, I would never have discovered this opportunity because I would have shielded myself from it. I would have shrunk back from it. I didn't have the tensile strength to bear it.

In the old days, I was stumped by the question, "How do you DO ministry? How do you find ministry opportunities? How do you invent ways to serve the Lord?"

Now, my perspective is quite different. "How do you NOT see MILLIONS of opportunities? There is an explosion of possibilities. The fields are white unto harvest."

In the old days, I was constantly stressed, overwhelmed, and stretched thin, because I was inventing things for myself to do.

Now I am at peace, calm, unstressed, and abounding in strength to be poured out, because I walk in obedience. I aim to do only and exactly what God wants me to do. I trust Him never to fill my plate too full. I wait for His leading, go when He says go, and do nothing when He is silent. How marvelous is this way of life! How blessed is this style of ministry! Having tasted of this, I never want to go back to the old way.