January 24, 2025
Blessed is the servant the master finds doing his job when he comes. (Matthew 24:46)
A well-written job description, developed prayerfully and specifically, is an invaluable tool. For over 55 years, I have used one in my work and ministry almost every year.
Our church staff calls it an “Annual Position Focus Sheet” because it helps set the parameters of where we should spend our time and energy each year. It clarifies expectations, focuses our energies, determines our priorities, gives us direction, sets the boundaries with the rest of our team, and gives a great sense of joy if we accomplish what God calls each of us to do.
YOUR MOST IMPORTANT JOB DESCRIPTION
Each of us has a higher job description, whether we acknowledge it or not. It is not determined by man but by God. He made us in His image—fearfully and wonderfully. He designed us like He is so we can join Him in what He does. Each man and woman has a specific sphere over which they are to lead and oversee … and we will one day give an account of what we’ve done.
Jesus speaks of the end of the world in Matthew 24 and reminds His followers of how blessed they will be if the Father finds them “doing [their] job when He comes.”
The great business guru Peter Drucker would always ask any CEO two questions to begin the conversation because he knew it encompassed everything: “What’s your business?” and “How’s business?”
FINDING YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION
As I read these words this morning and prayed through them, I stopped and asked the Lord, “Father, what is my job?” and “How am I doing?”
I encourage you to sit down and prayerfully do the same. Don’t try to make it up; ask the One who made you, who knows the work you are to do, what He says your job is. He is the only One who can accurately assess where you need to grow and develop.
I have no desire to do anything other than model this thought as I write. But these were my thoughts this morning as I sat before the Lord and wrote out my current “Position Focus Sheet.” Your job description will be dramatically different from mine in the specifics, but I challenge you to sit with a blank sheet of paper and let God focus your life as you begin this new year for His glory.
MY POSITION FOCUS SHEET JANUARY 24, 2025
SUPERVISOR: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
CURRENT RESPONSIBILITIES:
1. Love the Lord with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.
2. Love others (even my enemies) with genuine, God-initiated love.
3. Love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave His life for her.
4. Love my children and grandchildren and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
5. Begin each day entering God’s presence, communing with Him through His Word and prayer, setting the day to His agenda, and getting my soul happy in Him.
6. Resist distractions and embrace difficulties throughout the day so I will not be pulled away from His presence. Abide in His presence in unceasing communion with Him throughout the day for “apart from Him, I can do nothing” and knowing the best I can give to anyone is Christ in me.
7. Look for and seize every opportunity He gives to share Him with everyone I meet.
8. Lead and serve in the current ministry and tasks He has given me with prayerful, God-initiation and aggressive diligence, knowing that “my work is not in vain in the Lord” and is to be done “as unto the Lord.”
9. Study and rightly divide the Word of God, fervently listening for His voice, so I may understand and share His Word through personal discipling, teaching, preaching, and writing as faithfully as I can, as much as I can, for as long as I can, intentionally seeking to develop fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ and help church planting and growth.
10. Steward the time, treasures, and talents the Lord has entrusted to me in this life in ways that please and honor Him … ways that would make Him able to say, “Well done, you are a good and faithful servant.”
11. Embrace God’s sovereign will, whatever my assignments, with courage, contentment, eagerness, and joy, knowing that “when I cannot trace His hand, I can always trust His heart.”
12. Shepherd well any flock the Lord gives me to oversee—of one or a thousand—in each season, with humility and faithfulness.
And now, Father, may You give us the grace to be found “doing our job” when You come!
January 23, 2025
We are sheep, pure and simple. We are wayward and foolish at every turn. But as we humbly come to the end of ourselves and gladly surrender to the Shepherd’s care, we begin to know the level of care and leadership we were designed to enjoy.
January 22, 2025
When you enter freely into the throne room because Christ has “given us an introduction by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Romans 5:2) … never forget the price paid for your freedom and salvation.
Stand in awe of Him … and stand humbly.
January 21, 2025
We must cooperate with God in ways that make it so. We should be careful that it is nothing less … that we are creating an environment where people are encountering God and communing with Him. A place alive with His presence.
