Daily Devotional

June 2, 2013—ten years ago last month—marks a significant date in my own spiritual history. At the seasoned age of twelve years old, I was given the opportunity to teach my middle school group on Sunday mornings. In my Dallas megachurch, that meant talking for close to an hour in front of a group of a hundred of my peers. While my outline and ridiculous PowerPoint might make me cringe now, I loved every minute of that experience. Looking back, I can see that God used it to ignite a passion for teaching and for ministry. In a real sense, my twelve-year-old sermon helped set me on the path that brought me to full-time ministry with Campus and JARON Ministries.

Years of reflection have given me a deep admiration for the pastor of that middle school youth group. He walked twelve-year-old Mark—unproven, untested, and definitely unskilled—through every step of the lesson planning process, then let me loose on his middle-school congregation. In retrospect, I’m kind of shocked he did so. Who lets an arrogant little twelve-year-old preach his own Sunday sermon? Talk about risk! But that pastor saw some budding work of the Holy Spirit in my heart and chose to cultivate it. While God rarely, if ever, reveals “what would have happened,” my guess is that I might not be in ministry were it not for the risk that the pastor took in letting me teach.

We see a similar story in the life of the prophet Samuel. In 1 Samuel 3, the young Samuel hears God calling his name but repeatedly mistakes it for the voice of his mentor and guardian, the priest Eli. Eli, however, comes to recognize that the voice calling Samuel is the LORD’s. Eli also recognizes what this implies: by calling Samuel, God is establishing him in his future role as a prophet. Samuel tells the boy to respond by saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears,” in effect encouraging him to step into the role the LORD has given him. Thus, Eli affirms the call of God on Samuel’s life and challenges him to pursue it, just as that middle school pastor did for me ten years ago.

Is the Lord calling you to do the same thing? Perhaps you have observed God’s hand at work in the life of someone you know, young or old. Maybe your son or daughter has an unusually tender heart for the lost. Maybe a friend has expressed a desire to teach the Word to others. There is great power, in my experience, in telling someone “I see God at work in you in this way.” Maybe your encouragement will provide the catalyst for someone to “fan into flame the gift of God” (2 Timothy 1:6).

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.