PUSHING THROUGH DISAPPOINTMENT IN MINISTRY (8 OF 17)
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:1-18
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Pushing Through Disappointment in Ministry (8 of 17)
Series: 2 Corinthians
Robert Dawson
2 Corinthians 4.1-18
A cartoon in Christian Leadership magazine pictured a pastor and his wife in their home having a conversation. The pastor, responding to his wife, said, ''Spiritual leaders do not pout. They may become vexed in their spirits, but they do not pout.''
Well, they do pout. They do get tired. They get discouraged.
Charles Spurgeon, in Letters to My Students, has a chapter entitled ''The Minister's Fainting Fits.'' In it he describes the pressures on the Christian minister to lose heart. He says, ''Our work, when earnestly undertaken, lays us open to attacks in the direction of oppression. Who can bear the weight of souls without sometimes sinking to the dust...All mental work tends to weary and depress, for much study is weariness of flesh; but ours is more than mental work, the labor of our inmost soul...such travail as that of a faithful minister will bring occasional seasons of exhaustion, when heart and flesh will fail.
Minister or not, we all know what it feels like to be exhausted by life, both inside and out! Each of us have sunk to the dust of despair under the weight of life's greatest burdens. If they live long enough, everyone will taste adversity and loss.
Our faith in Christ is not a magic bubble that protects us from encountering these things.
Our faith in Christ is not a bypass that reroutes us around life's suffering and disappointments.
When we face those seasons of loss, discouragement, exhaustion and disappointment, we need strength and encouragement to keep pressing forward and not quit and pout.
If anyone knew what it was to push through, it was the Apostle Paul. From a human perspective, he had every reason to quit but he didn't. In 2 Corinthians 4 we learn what kept Paul from throwing in the towel.
2 Corinthians 4.1-18 - Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, 2 but we ...
Series: 2 Corinthians
Robert Dawson
2 Corinthians 4.1-18
A cartoon in Christian Leadership magazine pictured a pastor and his wife in their home having a conversation. The pastor, responding to his wife, said, ''Spiritual leaders do not pout. They may become vexed in their spirits, but they do not pout.''
Well, they do pout. They do get tired. They get discouraged.
Charles Spurgeon, in Letters to My Students, has a chapter entitled ''The Minister's Fainting Fits.'' In it he describes the pressures on the Christian minister to lose heart. He says, ''Our work, when earnestly undertaken, lays us open to attacks in the direction of oppression. Who can bear the weight of souls without sometimes sinking to the dust...All mental work tends to weary and depress, for much study is weariness of flesh; but ours is more than mental work, the labor of our inmost soul...such travail as that of a faithful minister will bring occasional seasons of exhaustion, when heart and flesh will fail.
Minister or not, we all know what it feels like to be exhausted by life, both inside and out! Each of us have sunk to the dust of despair under the weight of life's greatest burdens. If they live long enough, everyone will taste adversity and loss.
Our faith in Christ is not a magic bubble that protects us from encountering these things.
Our faith in Christ is not a bypass that reroutes us around life's suffering and disappointments.
When we face those seasons of loss, discouragement, exhaustion and disappointment, we need strength and encouragement to keep pressing forward and not quit and pout.
If anyone knew what it was to push through, it was the Apostle Paul. From a human perspective, he had every reason to quit but he didn't. In 2 Corinthians 4 we learn what kept Paul from throwing in the towel.
2 Corinthians 4.1-18 - Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, 2 but we ...
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