I’m sure that you have either asked yourself the question or been asked the question: What keeps you here? What keeps you going when life and ministry get a bit tough?
We’ve all had one of those days when we wonder how we can keep going in this work of cross cultural church planting. And we’ve all had someone ask us the question as to what keeps us ploughing ahead when the work doesn’t go exactly as planned.
I’ve started reading and studying through Romans again and found the start of an answer in the very first words of Paul: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1). To put it simply, what kept Paul in the work was a thoroughgoing understanding of God’s grace, and the truth that it was God who had sent Paul into this work.
Paul was a “servant” who served because he recognized the depths of the riches of God’s grace towards him (Paul). And if God had shown Paul such grace through the gospel, then this gospel was for all peoples, all nations. One writer put it this way: “If we would be used of God, we must have view of the gospel that is as broad as the universe.”
Paul was also an “apostle”, that is one who is sent. If we were honest with ourselves, we would admit that we didn’t ‘run into this work’ on our own initiative and effort. We felt the pull of God’s call upon our heart. Most of us remember and could put words to that ‘calling’. He was the initiator. And what He did was to send us.
So, when things get rough, when the work doesn’t progress as we would like, our best move is to run back to the Father. Ask for Him to restore to us the joy of our salvation, to recognize His grace at work in our own lives. And then remind ourselves who called us, who sent us to do the work of the ministry.
When I remember that latter piece in particular, that it was God who sent me, it can cause me to see how much more I need to grow in prayer and in ‘believing’. And it will keep my feet from running from the work, towards engaging even more in the work.
Filed under: Calling, Church planting, Serving, Unreached people groups |
Thoughts Along The Journey 
.. We believe the Lord has called us into this ministry and Paul reminds us of another important belief.. That the Lord is always leading us in triumph even during the difficult times in ministry and when we feel inadequate.
2 Corinthians 2:14-16. “But thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession..” this truth kept him steady and encouraged despite the setbacks and unexpected things of ministry. May we cling to this truth as well!
Thanks for enlarging the discussion as we realize how grace and calling is tied to so many other elements in the Scriptures.