NEW Today’s Spiritual Food for Thought is provided by Charmer Pratt, a longtime member of Grace Covenant Church Philadelphia. Charmer has served faithfully in the welcoming ministry since 2016.
Spiritual Food for Thought for the Weekend
“The Body of Christ during Missions”
Acts 6:1-6
“Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.”
In 2016, I went on my first mission trip to North Philadelphia where we helped run a summer camp at a local school. On the second day of the camp, I helped with the games portion of the camp where I spent so much time playing with the kids that I don’t remember mentioning Jesus once the entire day. As we got ready as a team that night to share how the day went for us, I was ashamed to speak because I believed I had nothing significant to say. That shame melted away when my teammate who ran the games with me that day shared that because I was there, she found an opportunity to speak with one of the children one-on-one and share Jesus with her.
If you’ve never been on missions before, you may think the daily life of a missionary, short-term or long term, is a “sleep, pray, eat, evangelize, repeat” cycle. Yes, all of that happens, but so much more happens than that! You’re living life in boldness for Christ, but a lot of living life involves mundane tasks or things that otherwise may not feel like you’re contributing to the Kingdom. Remember that missionaries are not working alone, so sometimes those mundane tasks open the door for others to evangelize in ways they otherwise wouldn’t.
We see that here in Acts 6, where seven brothers are tasked with serving food and drink to the widows of the church. It seems like a mundane task that everyone could do, but the apostles thought it to be so important that they paused to pray for the men before they went out to do it. It’s also interesting to note Stephen, who would become the first martyr, was equipped with a fulfilling of the Holy Spirit to lead this task!
There is no such thing as mundane or useless work in the Kingdom of God. Just like in our physical bodies, there are parts whose work seems insignificant until they no longer fulfill their tasks. We are all called to preach the Gospel to someone. My exhortation to you is to not assume that you can only spread the Gospel by being the one who speaks. Being used by God to set the stage for His truth to be heard is just as important as being used by Him to speak it.
Prayer: Father God, thank You that You have created the church to be a body instead of a bunch of individuals. Please show me what You want me to do to build Your Kingdom so that I may do it joyfully. More importantly, please protect me from the temptation to compare the role You’ve given me in Your body with roles You’ve given to others. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
Bible Reading for Today: Isaiah 61-62