“Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need”
(1 Corinthians 4:7-8 MSG).
Mondays can be tough for pastors.
You invest so much of your week into Sunday: preaching, leading, and caring for your congregation.
Today you may be tempted to look back and second-guess everything. In these moments, it’s easy to look with envy at the ministries of others, to think your church isn’t growing fast enough and your influence isn’t large enough.
But Paul reminds you in 1 Corinthians 4 that everything you have is a gift from God—your calling, your congregation, your family, and even the challenges you face in ministry.
Instead of focusing on what you don’t have today and what didn’t happen yesterday, be grateful for what you do have and what has happened through your ministry.
This doesn’t come naturally, not even for the apostle Paul, who said, “I have learned to be content” (Philippians 4:11 NIV). Being content is a learning process.
It’s hard to admit we struggle with envy because it’s such an ugly emotion. Envy can be a subtle trap in ministry. Envy isn’t about dreaming big for your church. It’s about resenting someone else’s ministry because they’ve reached a milestone you haven’t.
If we can learn to be grateful for what we have, we can begin to get rid of these feelings of envy.
The Bible tells us that we already have more than we need and far more than we deserve. Every good thing in our lives is a gift from God, and it is up to him to decide when and how he uses us. It’s up to us to choose to be grateful and make the most of what we’ve been given.
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