Grow in Ministry Usefulness (by Recognising Your Own Sin)

Save others by snatching them out of the fire.

Jude 23

If you’re going to be useful in ministry, you need to have a proper understanding of yourself and what God has done for you. Sin has damaged us all, but the Bible makes it clear that sin has done deeper damage to you and to me than staining our lives. It’s changed our nature. Like wood that’s been in a fire, sin burns. It consumes.

The Bible makes it clear that we’re sinners because we sin. It also teaches that we sin because we’re sinners. Behind our wrong actions, there is a damaged nature. Your greatest problem is not your behaviour. It is your nature that gives rise to your behaviour. Sin goes deeper than clothing stains or graffiti; it’s like wood burning.

Here is an appropriate way to describe a born-again, spirit-filled, I-read-my-Bible-every-day kind of Christian: “I am a burned stick” (see Zech. 3:2). That’s not the only thing the Bible says about you, and it certainly is not the most flattering thing, but the Bible makes it clear that you’re a burned stick. You’re a charred piece of wood, and you’ve been snatched from the fire.

One day you will be completely free from all the effects of sin in your life, but that will only happen when Christ comes again. Until then there will always be a charred side to you. When you understand that, it will help you to grow in humility, and it will also help you to grow in compassion and patience with others.

Can you see how you have been charred by your own sin? Thank God for snatching you (or ask Him to snatch you) from the fire. Can you name one person in your life who is being burned by his or her own sin? Bring this person before God right now.