"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."
~ 1 Corinthians 15:58 (ESV)
John Crosby strikes a chord in his devotional "Called to Shepherd"...
"SOME WEEKS ARE JUST PLAIN tough. There are days when each of us just wants to throw in the towel, wondering why we do what we do. Those are the days when the evil one begins to whisper words of self-doubt and despair. He wants us to think our work is in vain. He wants us to think we don’t make a difference. He points to our team members who have embarrassed, disgraced, or worse. He points to the betrayals of others. He highlights our mistakes and shortcomings. He speaks through others both from afar and from within our inner circles. But the most dangerous voice is the one in our own heads: “This is a waste.” “I am wasting my life.” “This doesn’t matter.” “The whole world is against me.”"
John Piper digs deeper into our struggles in his timeless volume "Brothers, We are not Professionals"...
"No pastoral suffering is senseless. No pastoral pain is pointless. No adversity is absurd or meaningless. Every heartache has its divine target in the consolation of the saints, even when we feel least useful...
... All pastoral afflictions are graciously designed to make us rely on God and not ourselves. And therefore our afflictions prepare us to do the one thing most needful for our people—to point them away from ourselves to the All-sufficient God. In this alone is consolation and salvation. Therefore, “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation.”
Finally, J. Oswald Sanders touches on the marks of a faithful disciple in his volume on Spiritual Leadership...
"Scars are the authenticating marks of faithful discipleship and true spiritual leadership. It was said of one leader, “He belonged to that class of early martyrs whose passionate soul made an early holocaust of the physical man.” Nothing moves people more than the print of the nails and the mark of the spear. Those marks are tests of sincerity that none can challenge, as Paul knew well. “Let no one cause me trouble,” he wrote, “for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” (Galatians 6:17)."
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail the bright ascendant star:
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent.
Leaned me against the tree to die, and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yes, as the master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole. Can he have followed far
Who has no wound? No scar?
~ Amy Carmichael
May you keep your eyes on the skies
and press on for the prize my pastor friend...
Because He ever lives to intercede for us,
~ PJVS
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