I gotta have my orange juice.

Rick Phillips writes to encourage “unheralded, unknown, unpublished pastors”:

God bless you. I believe that future history (whether in heaven or on earth) will look back on these present years and realize that the most valuable servants in Christ’s kingdom were those humble, faithful, Spirit-filled men of God who labored in obscurity, usually serving small churches. You are more important to Christ’s kingdom than the media celebrities. And you are more important than hardly-celebrity types like those of use who write on websites like this one and have the privilege of publishing books and speaking at conferences. (In fact, the main value in our broader ministries is the help and encouragement we might give to you.) When the loads of chaff from so many superstar “ministries” has been carted away, the good fruit you have borne will endure forever.

So don’t be discouraged because you don’t pastor a megachurch (neither do I). Don’t be distracted by the winds and waves of trendy spirituality. And don’t forget that the reward of your service to Christ is the joy of serving Christ, giving glory to His name, and shepherding His beloved sheep.

Pray for your pastors today. Take time today to thank them for their labors and prayers on your behalf; encourage them! Don’t simply resolve to do this; do it now. Hebrews 13 instructs us to do this, reminding us that our pastors are precious gifts from God to us:

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. . . . Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

God forbids stealing in the eighth commandment, and in the tenth commandment he forbids even coveting. All of this connects to how we see the money and possessions that God has given to us. If we clutch them tightly as ours, or if we are discontent with what we are given, then our hearts are walking along the same road that is home to stealing.

One of the graces God has given to train our hearts in gratitude and away from selfishness is giving, whether it is almsgiving, tithing, voluntary offerings, etc. We love to give out of gratitude to our Savior, but at the same time God uses our giving to provoke still greater affections for him, releasing the hold that possessions have on our affections! Randy Alcorn describes how God uses giving to do this in his book The Treasure Principle:

Another benefit of giving is freedom. It’s a matter of basic physics. The greater the mass, the greater the hold that mass exerts. The more things we own–the greater their total mass the more they grip us, setting us in orbit around them. Finally, like a black hole, they suck us in.

Giving changes all that. It breaks us out of orbit around our possessions. We escape their gravity, entering a new orbit around our treasures in heaven. . . .

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). . . . Suppose you buy shares of General Motors. What happens? You suddenly develop interest in GM. . . . Suppose you’re giving to help African children with AIDS. When you see an article on the subject, you’re hooked. . . . As surely as the compass needle follows north, your heart will follow your treasure. Money leads; hearts follow.

Crossposted to Reflections on Upchurch