Archive for Pastor Encouragement
5 Ways to Keep Ministry from Sucking the Life Out of You
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My husband and I have been in ministry for 27 years now. We have lived through great mountain top highs and successful seasons, and we have lived through some low valleys and seasons of failure. There have been moments when we both have had to ask ourselves if we would choose the path of ministry again if we had it all to do over. My heart always finds the answer to that question is yes, although I humbly acknowledge that I don’t always feel that way. There are days and weeks and months when living in the ministry fishbowl and living a life dedicated to the service of others costs more than I wish to pay. But yet, deep from my innermost being the call of God still speaks and I know there is no other path that I would choose.
This morning, I pause to think of the many of you who live a life of ministry. I breathe a prayer for you even now as I write, and I offer these five ways that I have found to be anchors for true ministry. I am not offering this list as an all-inclusive; just a list of things that were on my heart today.
1. 1. Check your balance.
Are You Tired?
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Isaiah 53:4 contains a beautifully mysterious phrase. Jesus carried our sorrows.
What an amazing thought! The very idea of “sorrows” invokes feelings of things that are weighty and burdensome. To know that there is One who will carry those things which are too heavy for me is a thought which comforts and encourages my soul.
Life is made of cycles and seasons, and you don’t have to live long to figure out that some of those are filled with sorrows and pain. When my life is filled with sorrows, I cry out for relief, longing to escape the place where my heart is torn apart. And Jesus answers. Sometimes his answer contain immediate rescue, but many times His answer carries this idea, “I will carry the sorrows for you.”
He always wants to carry our burdens, but we usually try to handle life in our own ways, carrying things in what we believe to be our own strength. The problem with that is, well, we don’t really have any strength! It is an illusion. Nothing reveals our lack of strength any more than sorrow and pain. When life becomes unbearable, then we are either driven to the feet of Jesus to ask for help or we are moved to reject him because we misunderstand his heart.
