Watch Your Attitude!

Philippians 2:3 "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves." When you are in ministry, it can be so easy to get frustrated when it seems no one appreciates what we do. It is normal to like receiving compliments, but we shouldn't do things and expect to get a compliment. We need to remember that no one ministry is more important than another. We also need to remember that God gives us all the ability to do a certain task or ministry, so we should never think we are better than someone else! There is usually more than one person in each ministry. It would be pretty vain of someone to think the entire ministry depends on just one person, or that one person is more important than the others in their ministry. Your ministry will be much more successful in God's eyes and more effective if you remain humble, not think that you are better than someone else, and not expect compliments from others.

Job 12:9 "Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this?" Job's friends assumed that he was being punished by God because he had sinned. They were quick to judge, yet they weren't saying things that Job didn't already know. He even went as far to tell them that even the animals know the things they were saying! Have you ever cast judgement on someone without knowing all the facts? Have you ever looked at someone who was going through a difficult time and thought "They deserve it." or "God must be punishing them."? Have you ever thought that you were better than someone else because you weren't going through a difficult time? Again I say, watch your attitude! We don't always know why God allows things to happen to people. We should never assume they are being punished for something! Nor should we assume we must be better than someone else because they are having a difficult time and we aren't. We need to reach out in love and see if there is anything we can do to help people who are going through difficult times because there WILL be a time when we will also go through difficulties. Sometimes all a person needs is someone to listen to them, or pray for them. If you aren't willing to do that for others, then there's a good chance others won't do it for you when you need it. Let's all try to watch our attitudes and make sure everything we do is done out of humility and love, without expecting anything in return.