The Lover, The Healer

What is ministry?  How do I view it?  Not what ministries are there, but what does actual ministry mean to me?  When do I minister to others?  Is it constant or is it conditional?

Ministry should not be a switch I can turn on and off.  I shouldn't be able to flip into "ministry mode" just when I feel like it, neither should I blindly go about my daily business, blocking out the hurt that is literally walking around me.  Because the love of Jesus is not a switch.  It flows constantly and unconditionally, hurting and rejoicing with others, all the time.  When this love is in me and going out of me, then can I love constantly and unconditionally.  Then I can hurt with those who are hurting and rejoice with those who are rejoicing.

Just look into the eyes of the people around you, look into them with the eyes of Jesus, then you can see the hurt.  You can feel the pain and the brokenness.  They need to know that there is hope for them, that Love is waiting for them.  Help them see the One who sees you when you are broken and hurt.  You can't change them or fix their problems, but you can love them.

If I can more fully grasp what has been done for me, the healing that I have been given and the love that was poured out for me, then ministry will be full time for me.  It will not be a shift that I take or a switch that I flip.  It will be my lifestyle.  Love will be my lifestyle, because Jesus is my all in all.

This is not something that happens overnight, it is something I grow in.  I learn to obey His Holy Spirit, and to accept His forgiveness when I fail.  I cannot love on my own, I cannot care on my own, I cannot even see without Jesus.  But Jesus is strongest at my weakest.  He will do the loving and the caring through me.