What Is True Greatness?
Christians are appropriately cautious about wealth, fame, and power as ends in themselves. We strive for something of higher importance and value, for God’s glory and the advancement of the gospel. Wealth, fame, and power can serve this purpose, but are not essential. A pastor friend recently remarked, “In the end, the only recognition that matters is Jesus.”
What then is greatness in God’s eyes? Greatness begins with humility and a commitment to Jesus Christ, to become the person he calls us to be, and to be on his mission. Our best work is to seek the glory and centrality of God and to be faithful to his assignment.
A Christ-centered person is committed to put God first and to seek his greatness, for God’s glory to be known, and his purposes to be advanced. If we become great by human standards, it is only for his glory and his mission. If we accomplish great things, we did it because God empowered us to advance his purposes on the earth.
At the core, we don’t care about public acknowledgment or reward. We accept it graciously when it comes to us, but we are not seeking it, and don’t need it to define ourselves. We are in the service of Jesus Christ, and are therein content. God gets the glory, and that is enough for us. About Christian service expectations, Count Zinzendorf once stated, “You must be content to suffer, to die, and to be forgotten.”
POSITIONED FOR GREATNESS
When Jesus is at the center of our lives, we are positioned for God’s greatness. Why? Because God can trust us with his investment. We will be tested, but as we walk in faithfulness, God will fulfill his purposes in our lives!
A person who is satisfied wholly with God’s glory will happily redirect acclaim back to him. It would be unnatural to squander glory on ourselves. A trustworthy Christian never forgets God’s gracious salvation, how he delivered us from sin. We are grateful for God’s abiding grace in our lives. The apostle Paul lived continually with a deep sense of indebtedness:
“For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1 Cor. 15:9–10)
God seeks trustworthy people who will think big, pray big, and work for big goals for his glory, knowing that it is God at work in and through them, and that only through him will things of enduring value ever happen.
WHO GOD USES
As a young adult, missionary pioneer William Carey was a poor shoemaker in England. God gave him a vision for the unreached nations of the world, and by faithful, patient service over a lifetime, he became a catalyst for a Christian movement in India. He completed Bible translations in six Indian languages, he made disciples and planted churches, he built Christian education institutions, and he advocated for the abolition of the practice of “suttee” (wife burning). Today Carey is remembered as the father of modern missions.
If the biblical narrative tells us anything, if we learn anything from Christian history, we learn that God uses common people to do his work. They are not wise or powerful or of noble birth by the world’s standards, but they believe God’s Word is true and the Great Commission is serious business. They get stuff done because they lean on God and expect him to do great things. God responds to their daring faith and glorifies Himself through their humble obedience. A. W. Tozer said,
“We must repudiate this great, modern wave of seeking God for his benefits. The sovereign God wants to be loved for Himself and honored for Himself, but that is only part of what he wants. The other part is that he wants us to know that when we have him, we have everything—we have all the rest.”
Jesus essentially said the same thing. “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33 KJV).
There is a sad futility in aspiring to greatness without reference to God’s purposes. The human yearning for achievement, money, position, and influence is ultimately unfulfilling and has no enduring value when God is disregarded. While external success might be achieved, the thrill of the conquest, the adoration of the crowds, and the feeling of satisfaction slips away. The elation of success wanes. The crowds move on.
WHAT MAKES A PERSON GREAT
For a Christian, aspirations for greatness have important implications. While aspirations are common to every person—they drive our choices, activities, education, friendships, and where we live and work—a Christian wants to know what God has to say about these things and how our aspirations advance God’s purposes and the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. We ask God to guide us both in the big-picture questions about the future, and in the small details we face right now.
God calls us to do great things for him, but that call begins with an aspiration to be a godly person, to become like Jesus in faith, in humility, and in character. This is the fountainhead of all outward forms of Christian achievement and greatness.
Excerpted from Before You Quit: Everyday Endurance, Moral Courage, and the Quest for Purpose (Moody Publishers, March 2020) by Doug Gehman.
Doug Gehman joined the Globe International staff in 1994 and became President in 2004 when the founding President/Director (Bob Bishop) retired. From 1978 to 1993, Doug and his wife Beth Ann served as missionaries to Asia where they founded AsiaNet Ministries, a crusade and church planting ministry in Thailand and Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the Gehmans and their team helped start more than 35 churches among Tamil tea estate workers, a church planting movement that has now grown to over 90 congregations and nearly 35,000 members. Doug attended Goshen College and Fuller Theological Seminary, and earned Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Missions at Liberty Christian University. They have ministered in over 50 nations. The Gehmans have four married children and ten grandchildren. They live in Pensacola, near Florida’s beautiful Gulf Coast.