Is There A Chip On Your Shoulder

When ministering in the kingdom of God, doing God’s work (spreading the gospel), it is important to do it with a single heart and mind, Acts 2:46; remain focus on the task-the gospel. Are we preaching from hurt to convince the people of God or are we preach from faith and conviction and allowing the word of God to do its work?
Things happened to all of us throughout our lives and we all will make mistakes because we are imperfect beings. We have not reach perfection in Jesus but we do strive daily. As Paul states, Phil. 3:13 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14: I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. As Paul states, we must let go of our hurts and disappointments and let God take care of them and do his will despite how we feel. Being that living sacrifice (Rom. 12:1) is enduring that which we have went through or suffered rather it was for the kingdom of God or if it was for something that we have done on our own. This is what Jesus meant when he stated in his teaching, Mark 8:34 “…let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Whatever issues we had and still dealing with, we must pick those things up and follow hard after God. He will not remove everything out of our lives so we can be trouble free. When Paul inquire of God many times about the thorn in his flesh, he wanted God to remove it so - he believe – to become a better servant for Christ, 2 Cor. 12:7-10. Jesus response to him, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness”. Through our struggles in life and with all our inconsistencies, God is able to use us in his will and show himself mighty. Why? “Because we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us 2 Cor 4:7. When God uses us, the glory will go to him because we know and other know that we ourselves are not capable of doing the miracles of God ourselves in the state that we are in (sinful).
It takes a lot to do what is not in our nature to do which is to do selfless service despite how we feel and what we are going through. It takes daily practice. This is the will of God for man to show love and kindness towards others- John 13:34&35 . This is how others will know that God is love because we are able to show love to one another.
Many of us are going around doing “the will of God” with ‘a chip on our shoulder’. We carry our hurt and disappointments into the ministry and preach from that hurt or disappointment instead of from the will of God. What should come out of our mouths for edification for the saints, (Eph. 4:11&12) is causing separation and destruction among the churches and followers of Christ. Just because we were done wrong does not mean we need to persuade others to adopt the same attitude towards God or towards others as we do. Through it all, we must preach love, salvation, grace… We must demonstrate the fruits of the spirit at all time, (Gal. 5:21&22) in our walk in the gospel of Jesus the Christ.
Yes it is hard and no one never said it would be easy, but if Jesus who came down as a man and did it as an example unto us all, so can we with the power of his spirit living in us, The comforter. The Holy Ghost, (John 14:26).