Responsibility

Ezra 10:4 Arise, for the matter is your responsibility, but we are with you; be strong, and do it. 

The Lord in His sovereignty has placed me in the Body where He deems best. Never did I ambitiously try to grab to be what I am today. In fact, I used to consider before the Lord how His mercy has led me thus far and how His grace has made me what I am today. In fact, my profile tag line has been,

1 Corinthians 15:10But by the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me did not turn out to be in vain, but, on the contrary, I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God which is with me.

I simply serve as a serving ones wherever the Lord placed me, and pray that His grace would be sufficient to me to carry out the responsibility faithfully. As much as I am being graced, I do my best to function responsibly and restrict myself to what is not really my responsibility. For, I am not ignorant of the germs of self-glory and self-exaltation and of seeking man's praise indirectly. The Lord in His mercy has been dealing with me in this matter of "ambition" since the very beginning of my service. I dare not say that I have learned the lesson thoroughly well, but I can testify that I am learning this lesson. Hopefully, I will learn it well.

Recently, through the visit of a brother and his fellowship on how I should boldly function pertaining to the responsibilities the Lord has placed me in, my view was uplifted, perhaps, renewed. As we fellowship concerning an international event to be hosted in India for the first time under the legal entity of the literature where I serve as one of the Directors, he charged me, "Be serious, be bold, you are a Director!" I was a little passive in this matter as there are few other brothers who I feel can take the lead. Officially and positionally, I can do all the legal approval and signing of documents, but the active works I leave it to the brothers. I prefer to follow them and support them, and amen them. But the brother's strong charge to me made me reconsider the way I serve. In fact, I am peaceful now to go ahead and do what needs to be done, boldly. Not in a way of ruling over others, nor exercising authority over others, but simply functioning as I ought to, responsibly. Therefore, I went ahead and jumped in to do what I need to do officially.

Here in Chennai where we have an office too, I need to take some immediate actions to meet the need for carrying out official works. With the responsibility assigned to me as a serving brother, officially as a Director, I took all the decisions to take care of the office works, purchasing office needs, though expensive they may be: inverter batteries, network printers, and few other office works and the oversight of the entire office operation. In my natural man, I would not and dare not do such things. Given a choice, I would rather follow others' leading obediently and faithfully. But since the Lord has placed me in such an official position, I must be faithful to the responsibilities the Lord has assigned to me.

Now I have no chose. I must arise, for the matter is my responsibility, but my brothers are with me; so I must be strong, and I must do what needs to be done. 

Lord, grace me to bear responsibility faithfully and boldly.