Ministering to the Lord Pt.3

Last week we talked about praise and worship in our ‘Ministering to the Lord’ series.  Remember that the Lord spoke to the church to send out Saul and Barnabas as they ministered to Him.  We also talked about the Lord needing nothing.  As someone pointed out to me, this is true.  However, He does want something.  He wants a relationship with us.  He wants us and paid a great price to have us.  That act was based on His love for us.  He expressed His love for us in what He did.
He also seems to want to have that love reciprocated.  He wants us to express that love back to Him. That’s how love works.  One of the things that we can do to express that love is to graciously thank Him for all of the wonderful things that He has done for us.  It shouldn’t be too hard to think of things to thank Him for.  Begin with the price that He paid through His Son just to have us . . . not only to have us, but to deliver us from an awful eternity to a wonderful one with Him.
He has kept us from day to day.  He has given us friends and family.  He has kept us alive.  H has met our various needs.  He leads us in His will for our good and in ministry opportunities.  The things that we have to thank Him for are almost endless.  He loves to hear us acknowledge Him and thank Him for all this goodness that He’s done for us.  That enhances our relationship with Him.  We minister to Him when we respond to Him like this.
Remember that when the disciples ministered to the Lord like this in the early Church, He responded to them by speaking to them; leading them into productive ministry for Him in their lives.  Do you want to hear from Him?  Do you want that kind of relationship with Him?  Then thank Him for all He’s done.  Praise and worship Him.  Minister to the Lord and He’ll minister to you.  We’ll look at another thing we can do to minister to Him next week.