Tuesday 10 March 2015

TAKE YE AWAY THE STONE


MEMORY VERSE: Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead for days. John 11:39.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Romans 11-12, Matthew 17-19

There are three basic attitudes to work. Attitude one, you delegate work to people, competent or incompetent, sit back and relax. This is full of disadvantages. Firstly, you get what you inspect not what you expect. If you give out tasks to people and you don’t inspect it as they are carrying it out, you will be disappointed at the end of the day. Recently, a friend, who is into photography and media business, was sharing with me how he gave a job to a cameraman, to cover a show. When the cameraman got the job, he promised heaven and earth. Thank God, this friend was diligent enough to be at the show before time. The cameraman who was meant to be at the show by 10 am did not turn up and did not pick up his call until 5pm. His excuse was he went to club the previous night and overslept. If all a man wants to do, as the leader, is delegate tasks, sit back and relax, the work will go on forever. People generally love to work at their own pace, which many a time is at snail’s speed, in their own way and if care is not taken, one will end up paying ten people for a job that two people should have done.

This is what informs ‘attitude two’ to work which is, 'do everything yourself'. One of the advantages of this attitude is that you complete the work in record time without any complains. Also, none of your staffs will be able to hold you to ransom because they know that without them, you can manage quiet well. In addition, the quality of the work will be to your taste. This has few disadvantages and one of them is you will experience a burn out. A lot of people are being treated for exhaustion as we speak. Also, this could affect one’s marriage. This could affect one’s service to God. There a lot of ministers of God, who labour so much on ministry that they no longer have time to minister to God. To wake up at night to pray is now an uphill task because they have worked and worked - visited this family, settled that quarrel, spoke at this event, travel to another part of town to give a speech, and so on. Many a time, they rarely spend time with their family – their number one ministry. There are a lot of wives who are experiencing a burn out too. Although they have grown up children, they are the one who does the cooking, the cleaning of the house, the laundry and so on. Added to this, they support their husbands especially by praying for him, and still go to work.

What is the solution? How did Jesus, the most hardworking man that ever lived, the most effective man that ever lived, the most successful man that ever lived, managed to do all He did within a space of three years and the bible never recorded that He experienced a burn out or could not go out to minister as He was too tired? Firstly, it is the Holy Spirit. There are other secrets too; if the Lord permits we will touch them. One thing He usually does when there is work is that, He did bulk of the work especially praying and fasting, and delegated some out to his disciples. This is attitude three. Jesus never tried to do everything by Himself. For instance, when He wanted to raise Lazarus from the dead (John 11:39-44), He delegated tasks out. When He got to the tomb, He told some people to roll away the stone at the mouth of the tomb. After praying and calling out Lazarus from the grave, He told another set of people to lose him and him go. Also, when He wanted to feed five thousand (Mark 6:36-43), He didn’t do all the work by Himself. He got some people to make the people sit down. After praying, He got the disciples to share the bread. After everyone had left, He got another people to clean the whole field and pack the remnants.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: If Jesus, our role model, delegated tasks, there is nothing wrong in delegating task. Also, whilst Jesus delegated the tasks, He did bulk of the work and supervised the tasks.

PRAYER POINT: Father, please strengthen me and give me the wisdom to use the resources you have given to me.

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