Reflections on God's Word

by Victoria Robinson

Girlfriends, please do not imitate an ostrich when you minister. That is because an ostrich is not known for it’s love. The truth is, an ostrich has a downright horrible reputation when it comes to love. She does not even protect her own eggs and ignores her young as if they weren’t even hers. In the book of Job we see the reason for her terrible behavior. The Lord told us it is because He has deprived the ostrich of wisdom.

Not so, with you my sweet girlfriends! God’s will for your life is to fill you with wisdom. One of the aspects of wisdom is to understand that ministry without love is meaningless. There is a parallel found in the picture of an ostrich found in the book of Job and the correct way to minister found in the book of First Corinthians.

First we see the ostrich actually has great ability in being a swift runner, but this certainly does not overcome her lack of love. Then we see the apostle Paul warning us about what would appear to be an impressive ministry without love. The outcomes of ministry without love include: only making noise, not doing any good, being worth nothing, and is of no value.

Dearest girlfriends, I pray we would take our ministry cues from our loving heavenly Father and not the unloving ostrich.

“The ostrich flaps her wings grandly but has no true motherly love. She lays her eggs on top of the earth, to warm them in the dust. She forgets that someone may step on them and crush them, or the wild animals destroy them. She ignores her young as though they weren’t her own and is unconcerned though they die, for God has deprived her of wisdom. But whenever she jumps up to run, she passes the swiftest horse with its rider. ~ Job 39:13-18 TLB

If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages without learning them and could speak in every language there is in all of heaven and earth, but didn’t love others, I would only be making noise. If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what is going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do? Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love. If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever. Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him. All the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever. ~ 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 TLB

For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. ~ Colossians 1:9 NIV

Our love for each other proves that we have gone from death to life. But if you don’t love each other, you are still under the power of death. ~ 1 John 3:14 CEV