God designs people differently and places them in a wide variety of ministries (1 Co 12:5), but regardless of what kind of ministry a person does, some become spiritually fruitful while others stall and make little progress. And the difference between the two doesn't seem to depend on talent or natural gifting. Those who become very fruitful are not necessarily the ones you or I would have picked. Highly talented people might accomplish little over a lifetime while someone who appears much less talented might go on to accomplish remarkable things. So, what determines fruitfulness must have more to do with attitudes than abilities, at least in the spiritual world. That's why God told the prophet Samuel that what He sees when He looks at a person is their heart, but what we humans see is the outward appearance (1 Sa 16;7).

And it was his heart that made Paul such an effective minister. It takes no more than the first verse of his letter to the Romans for him to let us see three life-changing attitudes that explain why he was so effective. Were any one of those attitudes missing Paul would not have become the great apostle that we know. Today as we examine the attitudes he reveals to us we need to be careful to avoid a common danger. Most of us admire him but think to ourselves, "I could never be like Paul; he was a great apostle." But God isn't asking us to do what Paul did. He's asking us to have the same attitude Paul had, and then to joyfully be what He's made us to be.Because when these three attitudes converge in anyone, unusual fruitfulness results.

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