Yesterday we read about Paul’s great commitment to God’s mission and his exhortations to the Ephesian elders to show the same commitment. It’s always good to examine our commitment to see if we can’t step it up a bit. This challenge, however, is becoming a bit countercultural, even in church circles. We are becoming over cautious about exhausting people. We all live busy lives, and we don’t want to burn out in ministry. Burnout, however, isn’t caused by commitment. It is caused by things that make the yoke heavy that Jesus said was meant to be easy (Matthew 11:30). That isn’t commitment, it is striving, ambition, competitiveness, control addiction, people pleasing, self-reliance, and so forth. Jesus wants us to work from a state of rest. You don’t take holidays from serving God. If you step into God’s Kingdom agenda you won’t have to pull it along, it will pull you along. Life can be exhausting when we are trying to make a way for ourselves. I agree we all need more rest. However, most people don’t ever find the rest that they need because they don’t realise what they need rest from. It isn’t from serving God, it is often from serving their own onerous self-expectations. There is of course a limit to what a person can cope with but God doesn’t put expectations on us that exceed that limit. We do this to ourselves and each other. God’s expectation is actually remarkably minimal. He says: “Just walk in the way I have prepared and love those I have given you to love. Don’t try to save the world. Be committed to the small things.”
Commit yourself to God’s agenda.
Read Acts 20:17-24 again along with Isaiah 40:28-31
