Many people are frustrated and challenged because they do not know their God given assignments in life…
Many think that the Lord always wants them to make millions of dollars, lead thousands of people and be involved in huge assignments – they think, ‘if God is in it, and if I am doing things right, then it is going to be huge!’ They think that being successful is always measured by the size of their achievements… this kind of deceptive thinking will only lead to frustration and disappointment. Statistics say that most pastors either resign on a Monday, or make very bad decisions concerning the ministry on a Monday – This is because they are either so elated because they had a large attendance and a large offering, and it has gone to their head, or Sunday’s attendance was a record low and the offering was small.
It is the same with business – a big money deal often leads to a celebration as well as unrealistic future plans, or if business is slow, it often leads to discouragement and changes in career. Knowing your assignment will make you stable, patient, full of joy and full of faith no matter what circumstances look like.
After the brook dried up, God’s plan for Elijah, (one of the greatest prophets of all time) was to go and minister to a widow woman and her son and to allow her to provide for him. First of all, notice that the brook dried up – the great prophet ran out of the basic necessities of life, yet he was right in the will of God. Then notice, Elijah was assigned to minister to two people – could that possibly be God? Doesn’t God always lead you to minister to thousands? Some success and motivational leaders of today would strongly suspect Elijah of committing sin or having major leadership problems.
Elijah was not having leadership problems and he was not in sin, and he was totally content – that’s because he knew his assignment. Sometimes our assignments from the Lord seem insignificant, but like in the widow woman’s case, the recipients of our so-called small assignments do not deem them insignificant!
The Lord may call you to minister to a handful of people for years, or He may call you to serve burgers at a fast food place and wear a hairnet – He may call you to do business with a very small profit margin and He may call you to work behind the scenes where most of your hard work goes unnoticed. He will always take care of you, even in the smallest of assignments… by the way, sometimes the smallest looking assignments are the greatest!
The Father is not sitting in Heaven, wringing His hands, thinking, “I better give Johnny a BIG assignment with LOTS of money and THOUSANDS of people, or else he may become depressed and suffer from and identity crises, or think that I am not pleased with him!” No, God does not operate like that - like Paul He wants us to be content in whatever state we are in and whatever assignment we have been given.
Don’t make decisions based on what secular society deems as a pathway to success, make decisions after prayer and based on the leading of the Spirit! If you do not, you may miss your ‘widow woman’, and if you miss your ‘widow woman’, you may miss your role in changing a nation as Elijah did. Many want to call fire down from Heaven, lead nations into righteousness and make billions of dollars, but most will not endure the solitude of the brook and the seemingly insignificance of the widow woman and her son. What were Elijah’s most successful assignments? His most successful assignments were the one’s that he did with all of his heart and all of his faith with joy and grace and contentment and total trust in the Lord.
Don’t ever follow after success, follow the Lord and do His assignment’s and success will follow you!
