“Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not.”
To make a long story short, the ministry that Paul wrote about here is the ministry of telling others about Jesus. This ministry was not always welcomed in Paul’s day and it is not always welcomed in our day. Paul suffered greatly for sharing Jesus with his fellow Jews and Gentile pagans. He did not faint, quit, or as the NIV translates it: “We do not lose heart.” The way we would say it today: “We have not become discouraged." Paul would have had many reasons to become discouraged, since everywhere he went there was, as Leonard Ravenhill wrote, “a revival or a riot.” If Paul did not get discouraged in his day, we certainly need to guard against it in our day. Why should we refrain from getting discouraged? Discouragement is plain and simply used by Satan to stop us in our tracks in Christ’s work. If he can get us discouraged, his job will become easier because when we are discouraged we do not serve the Lord. The fact is that at the bedrock of discouragement is self-pity. I know that in my own experience when I have given in to self-pity, I wasn’t any good for Christ, His church, or anything else good that I should have been doing. Think of how the New Testament would be different if Paul had lost heart and had become discouraged, a lot of churches would not have been founded and about one-third of the New Testament would not have been written. We might think that our giving in to discouragement would not be as devastating as this, but for what God wants you to do and for what you can do for your church it would be devastating. I have probably written this in a blog before, but it fits here too well not to use it: Satan had a sale on his “tools” that he used for temptations. A demon was looking over the tools when he noticed a silver wedge on the top shelf with no price tag on it. He asked about the silver wedge and Satan answered him that this wedge was not for sale because it was the wedge of discouragement, and if he could get people discouraged it would be easier to get them to commit other sins. Discouragement does not lead to anything constructive in our lives. I was involved in a prison ministry for over twenty years in two prisons. Sometimes I would miss one of my regular attendees at Bible study and would ask him why? A good many times the reason was that they had become discouraged because of problems at home or some other problem and just didn’t feel right about coming to Bible study. My answer was always that his discouragement was all the more reason to come to Bible study. I could understand that problems at home would be especially distressing for a prisoner, but not coming to Bible study would not solve the problem at home. Discouragement has a way of making us do things that we know are not good for us. This affects our work, our Christian service, our family life, and a number of other things that we do not need to give up on. Discouragement can have a negative effect upon our witness to the world. As alluded to earlier, when we are discouraged we are wrapped up in our own troubles and do not look outside of ourselves. We become selfish, mean-spirited and indifferent about the things that go on around us. This is true of our Christian living as well. It affects our prayer lives, our study of the Bible and our interest in the spiritual welfare of other people. I know that it is not always easy to overcome discouragement, because devastating things can happen to us to cause it. Believe me, I know that the struggle to overcome discouragement is not always easy. Hey, I have worked with churches for over fifty years; do you think that I am not acquainted with the temptation to lose heart? But I intrinsically know that if I allow myself to become discouraged my work will become ineffective. With a lot of prayer, Bible study, fellowship with Christians and the love of the God who wants the best for you, you can overcome whatever may be discouraging you. Bro. Joe
1 Comment
Radine
1/27/2014 03:49:58 am
So true. We need to be sure and make our guest welcome regardless of who they are. ( It might be Jesus)
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