When I first stepped into ministry, it wasn’t preaching on a stage or leading a staff. It was leading a small group of seventh-grade boys when I was a junior in high school.
If you’ve ever spent time with seventh-grade boys, you know they don’t exactly make ministry easy. They smell weird and they laugh at the wrong times. I was nervous, uncertain and completely unqualified. But underneath all that, I was excited. Why?
Because for the first time, I felt like God was actually using me.
I led those boys through seventh and eighth grade. I can’t say revival broke out at the middle school or that most became missionaries. But God worked. They grew. A few gave their lives to Christ. And I grew too. Ministry was hard—but it was good too.
If you think back to the first time God let you serve, you probably remember that same mix of hard and holy. Joy and weight. Uncertainty and purpose. That’s the tension of every calling.
God invites us into work that’s too big for us, yet he promises to work through us.
Luke 10 shows that same tension. Jesus sends out 72 disciples. These were ordinary followers, not just the Twelve. And the first thing he tells them is this:
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (v. 2).
Think about this: The problem has never been a lack of harvest. It’s always been a shortage of workers.
Yet somehow, out of everyone he could have chosen, God calls us. We get to be among the workers in his field. When the 72 return, Luke says they’re overflowing with joy: “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” (v. 17).
They can hardly believe it. God used them. Little ole them. Jesus affirms their joy, but he redirects it: “Do not rejoice that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (v. 20).
In other words, don’t just find joy in what God does through you. Find joy in what He’s done for you. Results may rise and fall. Attendance fluctuates. Seasons change. But the fact that your name is written in heaven? That never changes.
That’s the secret to lasting joy in ministry. When our joy is rooted in him, not outcomes, serving becomes not just a duty but a privilege.
So we’re to find joy in our identity in Christ, not the stuff we do for Christ. We’re supposed to anchor our souls in being over doing.
But what’s interesting here is that Jesus doesn’t want us to shirk the doing either, does he? Because the urgency still lingers. More than that, the urgency still … drives. Do you remember the urgency?
“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (emphasis mine).
“The harvest is plentiful.” Yay!
But there’s a problem. There’s work worth doing and fruit to be gathered, but not enough workers to do it. Jesus’ solution? Pray.
“Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest” (emphasis mine).
Don’t just do the work. Remember the magnitude of the mission, and beg God for reinforcements. Don’t just enjoy the harvest. Ask God to send more hands into the field, because the problem isn’t a lack of harvest. It’s a lack of workers.
That’s the balance every believer (and every church) needs to hold: souls settled, but hands moving. Joy over the harvest mixed with realism: We need help to get the harvest in.
We’re thankful God uses us, and we’re prayerful because the work is bigger than us.
So maybe today your ministry feels heavy. Maybe it’s hard to see results, or you’re worn out from showing up week after week. Remember, your joy isn’t in what you accomplish, but in what he’s already done.
Also remember, you’re not working alone. The same Lord who sends you is the Lord of the harvest.
Then do what he: Pray earnestly for reinforcements.
Jesus is giving us a harvest so huge that we desperately need them.