There is no ideal place to serve God except the place where He has set you down.
Quoted by Alistair Begg, Made For His Pleasure, Moody Press, 1996, p. 103.
God loves adverbs better than nouns; not praying only but praying well; not doing good but doing it well.
A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 128.
If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider “not spiritual work” I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and the exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary love.
To be sure, sometimes truly helping someone demands tough love, matching assistance with signs of repentance, Sometimes we must refuse to give a handout that would simply allow someone to remain enslaved in sinful habits. But our criterion for refusing to give assistance can only be whether our action can genuinely help the person, not whether he deserves the help or whether we will be inconvenienced.
Living in the Gap Between Promise and Reality, P&R Publishing, 1999, p. 46. Used by Permission.
Ministry, you see, is a great place for guys with the idol of success to hide, because we can mask our selfish ambition in the cloak of doing great things for God.
Gaining by Losing, Zondervan, 2015, p. 43.
The Lord grants us opportunities for service in accordance with our ability to make use of them. Accordingly, since not all men have the same ability, therefore not all have the same, or equal number of, opportunities. In the Day of Judgment the number (of opportunities for service, “talents”) will not matter. The question is only, “Have we been faithful in their use?” (see Matthew 25:14-20).
Matthew, 1973, Baker, p. 884.
There must be the inward worship within the shrine if there is to be outward service.
Through prayer and meditation on the Word, become willing to let God have all the glory if any good is accomplished by your service. If you desire honor for yourself, the Lord must put you aside as a vessel unfit for the Master’s use. One of the greatest qualifications for usefulness in the service of the Lord is a heart that truly desires to honor Him.
The Autobiography of George Muller, 1984, p. 221. All quotations taken from books published by Whitaker House are used with permission of the publisher. Whitaker House books are available at Christian bookstores everywhere. Get this book!
It is always a temptation to neglect the private inward service for the sake of the public outward service. Jesus called this inversion of priorities hypocrisy (Matthew 6:1-18). Our Father sees and rewards in the secret place. It is our love of appearances, our need to make an impression, which neglects that secret place.
Blog Post: The Cathedral Within, September 22, 2010, Used by Permission.
Never undertake more Christian service than you can cover by believing prayer.
No man, however gifted and devoted, is indispensable to the work of the kingdom.
Spiritual Leadership, Moody Publishers, 1967, p. 144. Get this book!
Love is power. The Holy Spirit, for the most part, works by our affection. Love men to Christ; faith accomplishes much, but love is the actual instrument by which faith works out its desires in the Name of the Lord of love. And I am sure that, until we heartily love our work, and love the people with whom we are working, we shall not accomplish much.
An All-Around Ministry.
I know this sounds strange, but there is a way of “serving God” that belittles Him, insults Him, and thus robs Him of glory. We must beware of serving Him in a way that implies a deficiency on His part or asserts our indispensability to Him. God is not in need of our service or help. We are in need of His. His purpose in the earth is not sustained by our energy. Rather, we are sustained and strengthened by His. We have nothing of value that is not already His by right.
Copied from: Pleasures Evermore: The Life-Changing Power of Knowing God by Sam Storms, © 2000, p. 60. Used by permission of NavPress – www.navpress.org. All rights reserved. Get this book!
The success of a ministry is always more a picture of who God is than a statement about who the people are that He is using for His purpose.
Headed for Disaster by Paul David Tripp taken from Dangerous Calling by Paul David Tripp copyright 2012, Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187, www.crosswaybooks.org, p. 28.
He who gives when he is asked has waited too long.
We don’t use people to do God’s work. God’s people are the goal of God’s work.
Shepherd’s Conference, 2020.
[Saying] “yes” might be very unwise. It might not be the best way to repay our debt of love. Saying “yes” to one task might keep us from another that is more important. It might mean that we will do something that someone else could have done better. It might mean that we will entrench the sin patterns of other people. It might mean that we interpret the church egocentrically rather than as a body, thinking, “If I don’t do it, nobody will.”
When People are Big and God is Small, P&R Publishing, 1997, p. 214. Used by Permission.
