Ministering as a Child of God 以上帝儿女的身份服事
Taken from Rev Timothy’s sharing at the CAC 48th Session Day 2 Morning Devotion.
Every Session of the Chinese Annual Conference brings to my mind the birth of my son, my third child, who was born on 11 November 2019. That happened to be the first day of the very first Annual Conference I joined as a Member on Trial.
I recall that when my wife and I visited the gynaecologist that day, because she had shown some possible signs of labour, we thought it was most likely a false alarm. I was even dressed in formal clothes, thinking I would head to the opening service of the Annual Conference straight after that. However, God had other plans, and our baby arrived that very day. I ended up spending the opening service of the 2019 Annual Conference in the delivery ward. Someone commented that I was probably the best-dressed dad in the delivery rooms that day!
Every time I need reminding of how long I have served as a CAC pastor, I look at my son. I am still relatively young in the ministry, and I still have much to learn. I have also come to realise that the childlike nature of my son should reflect the posture of my pastoral ministry, and indeed, the posture of ministry in general. All our ministry should flow from our identity as beloved children of God.
Psalm 131 conveys this through the vivid image of a weaned child with its mother. Allow me to offer some brief reflections on how this might guide our heart posture today.
“My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.”
A Heart that is Humble 一颗谦卑的心
First, we are called to embrace humility in our
hearts. For the psalmist says: “My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me.”
This is a psalm of David. The psalmist might have been expressing the humility a younger David who was setting aside any ambitions to wrest the throne from King Saul. Alternatively, these words could have been the ruminations of an older King David, worn down and humbled by the cares of his troubled reign. Either way, the message is clear: we are to humble ourselves before God, because many great matters lie beyond our control.
Consider the great matter of the Gospel, the ultimate reason for which we are conferencing each year. Consider the mission to proclaim Christ into the brokenness of humanity, to lead people from death unto life, to spread scriptural holiness over the land. These are ends well beyond our means. These are great matters and wonderful things that only God Himself can accomplish. To transform even a single person’s heart, to save even a single soul—that is something God alone can do.
Yet perhaps too often, in our zeal to serve God, we might come under an illusion of control. We think more highly of ourselves than we should. Then, like King David, we have to learn the hard way that no matter how capable we are, or how anointed we are, or no matter how hard we try, it is ultimately God who determines the outcomes. We should therefore surrender these outcomes to Him.
Consider the young child “helping out” in the kitchen, which my children sometimes like to do, and I myself did as a child. If you have ever tried cooking together with a child, you’d know that you often spend more effort managing the child than actually cooking the food. In Chinese, we might say 越帮越忙 – too many cooks spoil the broth.
I see this as a picture of my own ministry. God could have accomplished everything without me, but He has granted me the privilege to help out. And when I am involved, I have my limitations (越帮越忙), but God graciously ensures the outcomes, and even enables me to grow through the process of serving Him.
Therefore, pride in ministry is not just about celebrity pastors or prominent platforms. All of us are susceptible. The remedy is to embrace a childlike spirit of humility.
A Heart that is at Rest 一颗安稳的心
Secondly, our hearts are to be at rest in God. Like a child at rest with its mother. “But I have calmed and quieted myself,” says the Psalmist, “I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.”
In the original text, the word “calmed” literally means to level out, to make even. This calming and quieting of ourselves involves smoothening out all our restless strivings. These might be strivings owing to pride, fear, insecurity, or envy of others. How might we be restless today, in our lives or our ministries?
I am reminded of the song In Christ Alone where we sing in the first stanza: “What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease! My Comforter, my All in All, here in the love of Christ I stand.” We can rest from our restless strivings when we are secure in our Father’s love for us in Christ Jesus.
This relates to the portrayal of the “weaned child” in this psalm. Why the emphasis on the child being “weaned”? As I have witnessed with all my children, the weaned child (as compared to the nursing child) is no longer restless for his mother’s milk. The child no longer demands or frets about what the mother can give him in the moment. He is content to simply be in the mother’s presence. Similarly, we need to grow in this manner, from being anxious and restless about what God can give us, what we want from Him now; to simply resting in God Himself. More than the gifts, we look to the Giver.
We might be anxious about many things, our many needs and desires. We might be thinking: “If only I had this… or that… I might be satisfied. If only my church would grow more, if only I could receive more praise and less criticism, if only my ministry would be more successful… then I would be content.” Yet today, God offers you and me something better than that. He offers us His very presence. And that is enough.
May our faith journey be a weaning process for us, where we are weaned progressively from our restless strivings, so that we are freed to live and to serve God from a place of rest in Him.
A Heart that Hopes in the Lord 一颗仰望主的心
Thirdly and finally, our hearts are filled with hope, for we hope in the Lord. The Psalmist proclaims in the imperative: put your hope in the Lord! This is an active hope that we are to take hold of. It carries the sense of waiting, a deep longing for a better and blessed future. Since God is in control, and He is trustworthy, we are assured of this blessed future, both now and forevermore.
Being humble and rested do not mean we are passive, or indifferent, or we shun the challenges of life and ministry. To the contrary, we can pro-actively confront these challenges, by God’s grace. We can make plans and commitments at this and every Session of the Annual Conference, with the assurance that God is committed to His church, and as we serve faithfully, God will carry out His plans to fruition, according to His perfect will.
Not every weaned child can place their hope in their parents. All earthly parents fall short. But we are children of the Almighty. Will we embrace this spirit of childlike dependence and hope upon the Lord? Will we serve the Lord with faith and faithfulness, trusting Him to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Ephesians 3:20)? And as we do this, I trust we shall find, that our Father is shaping and forming us, in order that we will come to resemble Him more and more, to be holy as He is holy, to be perfect as He is perfect.
These postures of heart are anchored on our identity as beloved children of God. Above all, this psalm is really an invitation to embrace this as our identity and allow our ministry to flow from it.
John Wesley: Faith of a Servant & Faith of a Son
约翰·卫斯理仆人的信心与儿子的信心
John Wesley, later in his life in the mid-1770s, looked back on his Aldersgate experience of 1738 and added some important footnotes to his journal entry of that event. On hindsight, with the benefit of decades of walking closely with the Lord, Wesley noted that prior to 1738, he had the “faith of a servant”, meaning he had served God mainly out of reverential fear; but after that heart-warming Aldersgate moment, he acquired the “faith of a son”, serving God out of gratitude and love. He was in fact being perfected in love, and his ministry from that point flowed from that. Embracing his identity as a child of God transformed his life and sustained his ministry. Brothers and sisters, what about us today?
Reflection Questions
• How should our identity as God’s children shape our ministry? 我们为上帝儿女的身份怎么塑造我们的服事?
• How may we serve with greater humility, restedness, and hope in the Lord? 我们如何以更谦卑、安稳和仰望主的心来事奉主?
Rev Timothy Ang
Associate Pastor at Holy Covenant Methodist Church