Stop Striving in Ministry: God Doesn’t Need Your Strength, He Wants Your Surrender
Lately, I have been sitting with a quote that has stayed with me. It is attributed to Hudson Taylor, the 19th-century missionary to inland China. He once said:
“I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up by asking Him to do His work through me.”
That quote captures a journey. A transformation from control to surrender. From doing for God to letting Him do through us.
And if I am honest, it describes the journey I have been on.
When I Wanted God to Endorse My Plans
There was a season in my life when I was asking Jesus to bless a direction I had already decided on.
I was not really asking Him to lead.
I was asking Him to endorse my own plans.
For several years, I had dreamed about planting a church in downtown Seattle. My best friend and I prayed, planned, and imagined what it could look like. We envisioned a vibrant blend of ministry and entrepreneurship.
When I started dating my wife, that dream quickly became part of our shared vision for the future.
A year into our marriage, it felt like the right time.
We spent a few days at a church planting conference in Seattle, actually on the front end of our first anniversary getaway. We came away inspired and energized. It felt like confirmation.
So I signed up for a three-day church planter’s assessment. I paid the fees and scheduled time off work.
We were all in.
When the Peace of God Left
But three weeks before the retreat, something changed.
The peace of God just left.
I could not explain it at first, but after days of wrestling, I realized it was not anxiety.
It was clarity.
The Spirit was telling me: Don’t go.
In that moment, I had a decision to make:
Go be a church planter, or follow Jesus as my Lord.
So I picked up the phone and canceled.
No refund. Hundreds of dollars gone.
But I knew what obedience looked like in that moment.
Looking back now, I can say with confidence:
Even God-Sized Dreams Aren’t Always God’s Direction
Jesus was not trying to ruin my plans.
He was inviting me into something better, but only if I was willing to trust Him as my Lord.
Now, I am not saying I have lived a life of perfect surrender since then. Far from it.
But I have come to understand what Hudson Taylor meant when he said:
“God, do Your work through me.”
The Work God Chose for Me
Frankly, when I was younger, I did not feel any affinity for the evangelistic methods of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Prophecy seminars, beast handbills, organ music during an altar call.
Honestly, some of that hits on religious trauma from my childhood, but that is a story for another day.
So if you had told me 25 years ago that I would be leading an organization focused on helping Adventist churches with proclamational evangelism, I would have laughed in your face.
But the work we do at SermonView is deeply important.
And I love serving pastors.
Still, I do not do this because I want to.
I do not do this because I dreamed of it.
I do it for a much more profound reason:
Because Jesus asks me to do it.
This is the work He is choosing to do through me today.
It is an intimate, sacred place.
And my own wants and preferences do not really matter anymore.
To be clear, I love my job. I am incredibly blessed to work with this team God has assembled.
But once I surrendered my career at that level, something shifted.
It is like I have become a spectator to God’s power.
I just watch in awe as He works through me.
Sometimes I catch myself saying:
“Who is that guy? I don’t even recognize him.”
Because I am just doing what God asks me to do.
A Different Kind of Prayer
My prayer is no longer, “Help me.”
It is not even, “Help me serve You.”
It is simply this:
“Lord, I surrender. What do You want to do through me today?”
I have gone on this journey that Hudson Taylor described.
And like him, I have found surrender to be a wild life of adventure, one I never could have imagined.
Abiding Produces Fruit
Jesus said in John 15:5:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (NLT)
It does not say we will do less without Him.
It does not say we will be a little less effective.
It says we will do nothing.
Real fruit comes from abiding.
From surrendering control.
And it is not just my life that testifies to this.
A 2020 Barna study found that pastors with the highest levels of spiritual well-being were not the busiest or most “successful” by outward metrics.
They were not the ones with the biggest churches or best strategies.
They were the ones most deeply connected to God.
It is not about performance.
It is about connection.
It is about presence.
A Simple Invitation: Stop
So right now, if you find yourself in a place where you are working hard but not seeing any progress, where you are pushing through task lists but not seeing fruit, let me offer you a simple invitation:
Stop.
Just stop.
Take your Bible and a journal, and go sit by a river. Or a lake. Or in a quiet corner of your backyard.
Spend time with Jesus.
Not to write a sermon.
Not to plan your next meeting.
Not to outline a new vision.
Just stop, and abide with Jesus.
Let Him speak.
Let Him lead.
And when He does, let Him do His work through you.
Because the truth is:
God doesn’t need your strength. He wants your surrender.
The Journey of Ministry
Hudson Taylor once said:
“I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help Him. I ended up by asking Him to do His work through me.”
That is the journey of ministry.
It begins with effort, but matures into surrender.
Even God-sized dreams are not always God’s direction.
The most fruitful ministry begins when we stop striving and start abiding.
God does not need your strength.
He wants your surrender.
He wants to do His work through you.
Final Thoughts
Pastor, I know sometimes it’s hard to let go. To release control. To stop performing and return to abiding. But my prayer for you today is that as you spend time in God’s Word this week, He’ll speak directly to your heart, and that you’ll receive a message for you as His disciple. Not an idea for a sermon, not a message for someone else, but that you’ll connect with a passage that will transform your own heart. The Spirit is shaping you every day into the image of Christ. So as we begin this new year, I pray that you’ll surrender, completely, totally, and give Him permission to complete the masterpiece He’s begun in you. I pray for another day of transformation, that God can do His work through you. I love you guys. I’m cheering for you. We’ll see you next time.
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