“For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11

One of my favorite verses since I was a child.  I claimed it many times as my head said, ‘yes God has a plan for me’.    Yet it wasn’t until I was an adult that I embraced the verses that followed.  The verses that made me realize I have a part to play in God’s plan developing in my life.

Jeremiah 29:12-13 “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me WITH ALL YOUR HEART.”

The year my world fell apart and it seemed all ‘my plans’ for my life had been destroyed, these verses came alive in a very real and perfect way.   I was down on my knees in the middle of the woods literally crying out to God “what now?”   “What is your plan for me now Lord?”  It was amid that seeking with all my heart that He revealed to me that HIS plan was still the same.  HE was still the same.   I was the one who had drifted so far away focusing on my plans in this world, that I failed to seek Him with all my heart along the way.  Then I pondered, would it have changed the outcome of the events that had left me broken?   Maybe…maybe not.  One thing that was clear was that even if the circumstances hadn’t changed, my perspective most certainly would have… if I had only been living out the 2 verses that followed one of my favorite verses.

God has a plan for the world and most certainly invites us to be a part of that plan.  His redemption plan is perfect and full of blessings for those who choose to align with His will and seek Him with all their heart.  I am thankful that it is never too late to seek Him with all our heart and realign our lives with His plan.

Reflecting on my personal experience I can now see how God was working in several different people and groups and even another country during the time I was off course to complete His plan.  Then when I chose to seek Him with all my heart and start asking Him to include me in those plans, He aligned everything in His timing to bring me to a place where I could be a part of that plan.  Did He need me?… most certainly not.  He saw my heart and heard my prayers and chose me to fill a small part in His greater plan.  I am forever grateful and blessed because of that.

I am grateful for broken dreams and disappointments that led me to where and who I am now in Christ.  Not perfect, but a work in progress who has learned to seek God with all my heart and know that apart from Him I can do nothing.  

Now I read Jeremiah 29 out of order because for me it makes more sense that way:

v 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

v 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

v 11 For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.

If you are at a crossroad in your life and trying to make a big decision about your future, I encourage you to pray over and live out these verses for your direction.

If you have lost your way and desire for God to use you in His plans, I encourage you to cry out to the Lord and pray over these verses and watch and see how God brings you back into His plan.

Either way, commit these verses to heart and watch and see how God uses you to His glory in His plans.  The blessings are infinite, and the joy is priceless!

About the Author: Christina Massey has been serving as a missionary in Honduras since 2011. She is currently the administrator of Faith Home, a ministry that provides a safe and healthy place to love and raise children who were neglected, abandoned, and abused. She also loves being a mom to her seven year old son Joshua Isaias.

It can get wildly discouraging very quickly when despite all of your efforts and talents you still face empty pews on a Sunday morning, or when you’ve been given a great and powerful vision by God that you have all this passion to bring to light only to have it questioned, picked apart or shutdown all under the “noble” banner of practical thinking. It is these types of experiences that can leave any Christian, pastor or teacher left feeling unheard, empty, isolated and even hypocritical when it comes down to it.

It’s easy for us to want validation and appreciation after all the effort that goes into making a ministry work, hey, it’s even logical to want that. There’s just one little problem with that, ministry is what we’re called to labor and suffer for as our own display of appreciation for what Christ has done not to showcase what we have to offer. We need to be careful about over emphasizing trivial things over where we have been called to.

Today, I am going to share with you all three tips that I received from God’s word that not only will protect us from these negative and pitfalls but will also give us a healthier perspective with our ministries as well as allowing us to enjoy the life the Lord has given us.

Remember to Smell Your Roses

We’re all guilty of looking at our workload and counting the expectations we believe others have placed on us and we use this to rationalize the thoughts of keeping our noses to the grindstone as we prepare even to sacrifice things that we would rather be doing which isn’t always a bad thing unless it always becomes an expectation for us to do so.

The moment our churches and jobs begin to expect us to always be willing to give up our personal things for everything, we know for certain we have developed an unhealthy working relationship that won’t just put strain between us and our families but also on our relationship with the Lord. We need to have our own private time away from our ministries not just to recharge our energy levels but so we can properly lead our own families.

This should include first a healthy intake of scripture and prayer time to receive our filling as we prepare to go back and fill others. Second, this private time should include your spouse and kids, or if you aren’t currently married that doesn’t mean that you have a free pass to this step but rather use this time to focus on your most rewarding, highly prioritized relationships.

Finally, and most importantly while you’re taking in this private time it’s crucial that you remind yourself that this is just a break not a distraction. The difference is a distraction is an escape from responsibility and a break as a short notable relaxation recharge with the attempt to get back to your responsibilities.

If we all can learn to follow Christ’s example of “Smelling Our Roses” I am confident that not only we will find ourselves renewed and ready to do our best work but that we will have stronger, more healthier relationships with our families as well as our Lord! Keeping our hearts burning with truth rather than burning out under pressure.

Become a Listener Rather than a Speaker

As a preacher I can attest to the very real issue of always seeming like I have to have a response to a topic of conversation. If we are aiming to be as effective for the Lord as possible then we need to stop having “clever” responses or trying to fix other people’s problems when they finally open up to you and learn to just listen.

Foraging long lasting relationships is exactly how Christ was able to effectively teach his disciples the Gospel. He never corrected or interrupted others in conversation to “tweak” their feelings but rather built relationships by listening to who his people were and where they were maturity wise. It was always after Christ had established this relationship that they would come to him and intentionally give him permission to teach them.

This is not just the example we have to look up to, but it is an absolute standard that every Christian, pastor and teacher needs to imitate if we want to be effective in sharing the gospel. Stop speaking when others need us to listen.

Dare to Be Foolish

Finally, after we have adapted the core steps we have begun to set up a healthier relationship between ourselves and our ministerial work life. Nevertheless, our new perspective will never be completed until we ground ourselves firmly in “being foolish”.

1 Corinthians 2:21 KJV

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

Focus on being vulnerable and speak with the simple words that truly reflects your own feelings and experiences that have resulted in your personal faith in Christ. Don’t be fancy, just be the you Christ called in his ministry to begin with and let the Lord’s work be His work alone!

I hope this article not only has touched you in some way but has offered you a fresh sense of renewal. We don’t have to face the dreaded pain that comes with burnout or have to overwork ourselves in order to be the “ideal pastor”, we simply have to be real and genuine as we share the reason we love Christ, and let the Holy Spirit settle the rest. Don’t waste your energy on the battles that belong to the Lord and remember that it’s by the “foolishness” of preaching that men might be saved.

About the Author: John Ervin is a pastor and aspiring Christian writer who is currently serving as the pastor of Francisco General Baptist Church. He often loves to share the gospel alongside his wife and 7 year old daughter.

It was May of 2009 when we got the exciting news. We were on day 5 or 6 of vacation. 

It was a road trip that took us from Tennessee to Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina back when there was only like 2,000 people attending, and then we drove on to Myrtle Beach, where it was cold but we still managed to get burnt, and then we drove south and visited this crazy place called Tigers Wild Encounter, where we got to hold baby tigers, and then we drove to Savannah, Georgia which is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been.

And it was one morning in Savannah that my wife Samantha came out of a restroom holding what looked like a thermometer and told me we, “We’re going to have a baby.”

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

My job here is done…or so I thought.

Turns out there’s a lot more work that has to be done when you’re expecting a baby. A room has to be prepared. Furniture has to be bought. Walls have to be painted. Drawers and cabinets have to have those dumb locks put on them.

You gotta get car seats and strollers and clothes and diapers and pack and plays and swings and monitors, and how in the world are we going to pay for all of this when my wife is going to take 8 weeks off of work?

Yet miraculously you make it happen. You find the time and the money to make sure you’re ready for that baby to be brought home. Because the blessing of having a child far outweighs the cost.

I think all of us know this, and yet I walk into churches all the time who look like they’re not expecting anyone new to show up. 

They’re certainly not expecting anyone with kids to show up.

You know how I can tell? Because they haven’t done anything to prepare for them.

When you’re expecting guests, you prepare for them.

You clean the whole house. You make sure it smells good. You greet them at the door. You’ve likely prepared a meal for them or at least snacks. 

I show up to some churches and there’s no one in the parking lot to greet me, there’s no signs telling me where to go, there’s often no one at the main entrance, so I’m left to guess which door to go in.

And I’ve been going to churches for over 20 years now, imagine someone is trying out church for the very first time how awkward and intimidating that would be for them.

We expect our congregation to be inviting people to church, but we don’t prepare like we think anyone new is going to show up.

Almost every one of our churches would love to have young families showing up to their church every week, but they’re not prepared for them to come.

Most of them don’t have a nursery or a separate room for kids. If they do have a room it often looks like a storage closet from 1986. They don’t even have a diaper changing station.

So, if by chance a family does show up to your church, they’re probably not going to come back once they see that you weren’t expecting them.

There’s a little story in the book of 1 Samuel that I think we can learn from. In it, Jonathan and his armor bearer have gone to spy on the Philistine camp. 

“Let’s go across to the outpost of those pagans,” Jonathan said to his armor bearer. “Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!” – 1 Samuel 14:6

Perhaps the Lord will help us. The NKJV translates that verse,  it may be the Lord will help us.

Let’s try something and maybe the Lord will help us. 

And He does help them, and perhaps if we would prepare like we’re expecting guests to show up to our church the Lord would help us too.

It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated, it just needs to be intentional. Do the best you can with the resources you have. If you’re not sure where to start, please reach out to me and I would love to help.

About the Author: Travis Stephens is the Vice President for Church Health for General Baptist Ministries. He’s been married to his wife, Samantha, for 16 years and they have two beautiful daughters, Layla and Presley.