Jesus is Bigger Than We Think!

Tomorrow is Resurrection Sunday; the most important day in history! As I Corinthians 15:13,14 says, "But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.". But He is alive! We do have hope! We know He will return for us one day! (1 Thessalonians 4:14 For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.)

Jesus is alive, He is bigger than we think and He is able to do ever so much more than we can even imagine; but do we live our everyday lives as if we really believe this? Do we serve in our children's ministries as if we really believe this? Or, do we become overwhelmed and frustrated with all there is to do and think there is no way we can actually do all the things we need to do?

I wrote this past year about Burnout (you'll find the post at this link); I said, "I do not believe burnout is really a problem in children’s ministry. Stay with me for a minute as I explain. When we, or a volunteer, are tired from serving, instead of identifying it as, 'we are tired', we call it burn-out. Or, when one of us experiences frustration because we are serving on our own or took too much on for us to be able to handle, instead identifying it as we are doing too much on our own, we call it burnout.

There are other examples, but the point is, burnout is not really the problem. Misidentifying, or even not identifying, the problem is the problem. When we fail to correctly identify the problem, we can’t solve the problem and sadly, the end result is, people leave ministry and do not experience the joy God has for them when they serve. This is a true tragedy.

God, in His amazing generosity, has given each of us gifts to use in our service to Him! He doesn’t give these gifts for them to be a burden to us. He doesn’t give these gifts for them to bring us stress or frustration. Quite the contrary. When we identify and use the gifts God has given us, in addition to receiving the awesome gifts, we also receive a most amazing bonus . . . we receive an incredible joy!

Clearly, Satan doesn’t want us, or the volunteers in our ministries, to use these gifts and most definitely does not want any of us to experience the joy God has for us. So, if he can sidetrack us into believing we are burned out, he can not only get us to quit using the gifts, but he is able to successfully rob us of joy."

Follow the link for the full post, but think with me for a minute. If we are feeling overwhelmed and burned-out, then we likely have too small of a view of Jesus. The success of our ministry does not depend on us; it rests of what Jesus did and what He promises to continue to do; Philippians 1:6 tells us, "6For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."

The living Jesus is why we do what we do in children's ministry! The living Jesus gives us the strength and the gifts to do what He wants us to do and the living Jesus is completely able to finish what He has begun! The living Jesus is bigger than we think He is and He is able to do ever so much more than we can ever even imagine!