Fighting Discouragement
John is in Radford, Virginia this week for the HeartCry Missionary Society board meeting. While there, he recorded a podcast with Anthony Mathenia. Anthony is pastor of Christ Church Radford and a contributor to many Media Gratiae studies.
Christ Church New Albany is 20 years old. Christ Church Radford is about 10 years old. Both have faced hardships, tragedies, and struggles. As a pastor, how can you stay the course? As a Christian, how can you keep from cooling off, from slacking the pace?
How does a man or woman hold the course? How do you run well? Your Christianity must be more than outward conformity. How do you go from strength to strength, so that your latter days eclipse your early days as a Christian?
Scripture is infallible. It is also sufficient. There may be new lies, new temptations that face us that may not have in our early Christian days.
Around this time last year, John wrote, “Oh, my God, my Redeemer, my Life and Hope, my King and Master, hear me now and quickly restore the joy and the song of Your salvation. I have drifted, God. Unbelief has been allowed to take root—as sorrows and disappointments in the ministry have come.”
Do you feel slow to come to your quiet time and quick to leave it? When despair comes, how do you keep it from personally affecting your walk with the Lord and to give up hope yourselves?
It’s so easy to be so paralyzed by guilt that you are no longer able to do what God has put you there to do. But Paul was willing to suffer. He suffered terribly, and yet by the end of his life, he was not backing off at all.
A couple of practical helps:
Scripture: It’s necessary for us to be intimately acquainted with Christ in His Word. Don’t give up in despair. Walk closely with the Lord. His Word is sufficient.
He has promised to carry those who are with young—those caring for other people. Ask God to heal your heart and teach you how to walk through the valleys.
Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically
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