If you’re like me, you want to know you are making a difference. You don’t want your labor to be in vain. So how do you measure success? Is it in financial portfolios? Is it with positions and titles? Paul stated:

“You are living proof that I haven’t labored among you for nothing. Your lives are the fruit of my ministry and will be my glorious boast at the unveiling of Christ” Philippians 2:16 The Passion Translation

Paul was stating that people were the living proof of his labor. People’s lives were changed because he served and taught and lived with them. And my life continues to be changed because Paul wrote down what he had learned and shared it with me.

Call it my pet peeve if you will- I’m tired of people needing to be ordained just to prove they are qualified to share Christ with others. If you need a title or a piece of paper to prove you are a minister servant- then you aren’t one! If you need to be ordained to perform your service, that’s fine. I’m ordained too. But I was ministering and serving people and seeing some lives changed by what I was doing far before I obtained the certification.

Changed lives (not certificates) are the fruit or evidence of ministry. There is no boasting when we understand it is all Christ in me that helps anyone. But if no one is following you then you are a one man band. Look for people remaining and growing for the evidence of your effectiveness. Get so busy serving people, you don’t care about titles and certificates because you have God’s verification. Living proof is that lives were changed because I was here. That’s what God is looking for.

How to know you’re making a difference? Someone is following you. That can be your child or a group.