“Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” [1]
Becoming a United States Navy Seal is arguably among the most difficult accomplishment to which any person can aspire. The training required to earn the Trident is rigorous, demanding, pushing the SEAL candidate to limits beyond anything they might ever have thought possible. For seventy-one weeks, the candidate will be deprived of sleep, food, and comfort. They will spend hours on end immersed in cold water followed by physically demanding tasks. Sleep will become a luxury during those weeks until they earn the right to wear the Trident—or until they quit.
You see, at any time the candidate can walk up to a bell that is hung in the centre of the compound for all to see. It is a simple brass bell, but the purpose of that bell is known to each individual that embarks on the months-long rigorous training. Only one percent of those who enter into training will complete the course—it is that demanding. Many will be sent to other jobs within the Navy because they couldn’t meet the demands. Most who fail the course will ring that bell which is hung in the centre of the compound. They will have reached the limits of personal endurance, discovering that they have no more to give; and so they will ring the bell.
When a man reaches the limit and becomes convinced that he has no more to give, he can stand up, walk to the bell, and ring it. He will immediately be given opportunity to rest, allowed to take a hot shower, and be fed a good meal. But that man will never be a SEAL Ring the bell, and you’ll never be forced to waken at five in the morning. Ring the bell, and you’ll never be forced to endure the cold swims. Ring the bell, and you’ll never have to make the long runs in the sand or push your body to do the unbelievably demanding physical training. Ring the bell, and you’ll be allowed to go home where you can enjoy the comforts of home. Ring the bell, and you’ll never change the world.
In a very real sense, the training is more similar than we might imagine in the Christian life. There are multitudes who are saved—their sins are forgiven and they will be part of the holy throng gathered around the Emerald Throne of God, but they aren’t making much of a difference here on earth. They are saved, but they are not changing much in our world. If you want to truly make your life count in the short days allotted, you will need to train for eternity. Everything in your body and in your mind will scream, “Just ring the bell.” Your spouse will plead, “Just ring the bell.” The world around you will marvel at what you are enduring, and while you struggle to excel, multiple voices shout out, “Just ring the bell!” But if you ring the bell, you’ll just be another of a million supposed overcomers who will never know what they can endure. Ring the bell, and you will surrender your opportunity to make an eternal difference.
THE STRUGGLE YOU FACE TODAY — Whenever I take my place behind the sacred desk, I am acutely aware that I am speaking to people who are engaged in a very real struggle. Seated before me, or listening via any of the various media by which the messages that are delivered from behind this desk goes forth, are people who are experiencing pain, people who face crushing disappointment, people who have grown unimaginably weary in the particular struggle they are compelled to face. These individuals often wonder whether God even knows how they struggle. At any given time, some will question whether God even cares that they don’t feel as if they are winning any of their battles. The Wise Man has perceptively described our situation when he writes,
“The heart knows its own bitterness,
and no stranger shares its joy.”
[PROVERBS 14:10]
No one can perfectly describe your personal trials—the disappointments you have faced and the struggles you have endured; and even should someone manage to approximate the struggles that you are facing, they can never fully understand your struggle. The weariness, the heartache of defeat, are yours alone. No one can actually know what you experience. Those who love you, and especially those with whom you share the Faith, will weep with you when you weep, but theirs will always be the weeping of sympathy and can never be the weeping that comes from empathy. Your struggles are yours; no one can understand how you feel or comprehend the sense of desperation you have known, no one can actually share the weight you bear, save for the Master.
You often hear a popular saying in this day, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” And while we often hear people say this, we wonder how we are being made stronger when our body is wasting before our very eyes, when our heart is so shattered that we question whether we can ever love as fully as we once did, when our spirit is not simply crushed, but trampled in the muck. Where is the strength supposedly supplied when our child dies? Where is the strengthening needed when we are gasping for every breath and when every muscle in our body won’t stop aching? Where is the evidence that I am growing stronger when I am driven to cry out to God, pleading for even a token of His concern for me?
We witness the Apostle to the Gentiles justify his life of deprivation as he writes, “Whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant” [2 CORINTHIANS 11:21b-29]? This is the cost of vigorous service to Christ!
You recognise that this is the description of someone who made a difference. This is not the description of the life of a run-of-the-mill follower of Christ. We are not reading an account of the life of someone who is seeking an easy way to serve God. When the Master sent Ananias to Saul after Jesus had accosted him on the road to Damascus, the Lord said to Ananias, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine to carry My Name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My Name” [ACTS 9:15-16].
There was a price to pay if Paul was to accomplish anything of lasting value in the brief days allotted to him. From the very beginning of his call to service, this chosen vessel knew the cost of serving Jesus. Paul learned early in his walk before the Lord that walking with Jesus would be demanding, but the rewards promised are out of this world. He determined to keep his eye on the goal of serving the Lord, of walking in the path of righteousness with Him.
Don’t imagine that the Master’s demands were for the Apostle Paul alone. Have you never read the words our Lord spoke as He instructed anyone wishing to follow Him? Jesus said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” [LUKE 14:26-33].
Elsewhere, the Apostle has written of his drive to excel in the cause of Christ, saying, “Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” [PHILIPPIANS 3:7-14].
Paul’s determination is humbling. His commitment demonstrated through his life stirs us to aspire to do better ourselves. Paul did not set out to make a name for himself; his goal from the very first was to exalt the Name that is above every name. His purpose was to honour Christ in all things, ensuring that everyone had opportunity to know of the love of God in Christ the Lord. However, it is not enough to admire Paul’s determination and his commitment, we must adopt such determination and commitment for ourselves.
Here is the point that each Christian needs to seize—life is challenging enough for any of us as a member of this fallen race. At any given time, the cost of wanting to live a righteous life can impose a cost greater than we could ever imagine. If being a Christian was easy, there would have been no reason for Christ to die. Jesus cautioned those who wish to follow Him, warning that they must not imagine that everyone will love them. Perhaps you will recall the Master warning anyone who would listen to Him, “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets” [LUKE 6:26]. Don’t allow error to creep into the message you deliver to those to whom you witness. This Christian life is demanding. Christ the Lord deserves—yes, even demands—your finest service, your full dedication to Him, your utmost for His glory.
How else are we to understand the challenging words which the Saviour spoke, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” [LUKE 9:23-26].
How are you doing in the realm of denying yourself? What have you surrendered in order to follow the Master? In some of the final words he would write, Paul would challenge the young theologue who was then serving the assembly in Ephesus, “You must be clear-headed about everything. Endure suffering. Do the work of an evangelist. Devote yourself completely to your ministry” [2 TIMOTHY 4:5 ISV].
Let’s admit that taking control of your life, reigning over your own body is difficult. Listen as the Apostle speaks of the self-discipline he imposed on himself and his motive for disciplining his body. The passage is found in [1 CORINTHIANS 9:19-27]. There, we witness the Apostle testifying, “Though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
Elsewhere, as he protests against the Corinthian Christians who displayed their inclination to retreat in the face of danger, the Apostle testified, “Why are we in danger every hour? I protest, brothers, by my pride in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day! What do I gain if, humanly speaking, I fought with beasts at Ephesus? If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’ Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals.’ Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame” [1 CORINTHIANS 15:30-34].
Struggles? We all will face challenges, and many of these challenges will come because we are followers of the Son of God. The message pointing to the struggles of the faithful was not a message which Paul came to only later in his service before the Lord. From earliest days in his service, Paul was warning disciples that they would face trials. As the missionaries were preparing to return to Antioch following the first missionary tour, we witness the work they performed on behalf of the converts from that tour. “When [the missionaries] had preached the gospel to [Derbe] and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” [ACTS 14:21-22].
The message with which the missionaries encouraged the saints to continue in the Faith was that they would experience many tribulations. Now there is a message to stir the heart of any disciple! “Come, be a Christian. It will demand all that you have to give, and more. You will be opposed and spoken against. Members of your own household will be the first to attack you. But you are being fitted for eternity!”
The message Paul and Barnabas delivered at that time was one with that which Jesus delivered to His disciples when He sent them out to minister during His days in the flesh. Remind yourself of Jesus’ warning as He sent out His disciples. “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” [MATTHEW 10:16-25].
However, the Master was not finished with instruction for these men whom He was preparing for the hard work of serving Him as Master. He was going to tell them things that many of us imagine are not only unreasonable, but unrealistic. However, Jesus was dealing with the reality of life, and not the fantasy that many imagine.
Jesus continued, “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” [MATTHEW 10:26-39].
It is difficult to imagine so much negativity in one speech! What is more amazing still is that all this negativity is coming from the lips of the gentle Jesus, meek and mild! You see, in these modern days we preachers have created a caricature which we present as the Saviour. Moreover, those who hear us speak willingly accept, actually demand, that we present this caricature because what is presented is inoffensive. The caricature we present makes no demands of those who accept him even while promising a wonderful life! Our caricature promises a comfortable life that won’t make anyone uncomfortable. However, the caricature we have created does not fit the picture we have received in Scripture. Jesus was open and honest in cautioning those who wanted a relationship with the Father that the cost of a relationship with God would be costly. The rewards are literally out of this world, but the cost in this life can be extremely great.
I’m not trying to minimise your struggles. They leave you exhausted, without a doubt. However, I am reminding you that God allows nothing to come into your life without His knowledge. The Scriptures remind us, “No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. And God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it” [1 CORINTHIANS 10:13 NET BIBLE]. The God Who calls you is the same God Who has promised, “I will never leave you not forsake you” [HEBREWS 13:5]. As His child, you are immortal until He calls you home.
I understand that the words I’m about to cite which were delivered by the Court Prophet, Isaiah were given to encourage Judah. However, I have no doubt that they are intended to encourage the people of God who are looking to Christ as Lord.
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.”
[ISAIAH 43:2]
I may pass through the waters, but I am confident that I will not be alone. Christ my Saviour will be with me. I may pass through the rivers, but the rivers shall not overwhelm me. The same God Who rolled back the Red Sea so Israel could pass through dry shod and the same God Who rolled back the Jordan for His people will ensure that I am not overwhelmed. I may well be called to walk through fire, but when I walk through that fire, the same God Who preserved His servants in the midst of a fiery furnace in ancient Babylon, is the same God Who will be with me to ensure that I shall not be burned and to ensure that the flame shall not consume me. Amen.
YOU CAN QUIT NOW — “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” [GALATIANS 6:9-10]. Let’s admit the dark truth that we who follow the Master do grow weary. When the battle rages and we are constantly forced to respond to evil, we grow fatigued. Weariness settles over our soul and we question whether we can stand another moment of the attack. At such times, we want to turn and run, to quit the struggle, to do whatever is necessary to have a moment of rest.
I’m not suggesting that you should quit; in fact, I’m urging you to stand firm in the Faith, refusing to compromise with the world. Having said this, it still remains that you know very well that you can quit any time you want. At any time you can surrender to the temptation to lessen the struggles you are facing as result of your faith in Christ Jesus. You only need to ring the bell, and you will get a warm shower, a hot meal, and uninterrupted rest. You can go back to your old life, accompanied by the cheers of others who have quit and the applause of people who never wanted you to stand firm. The accolades are hypocritical, but they will console you for a brief moment, affirming you because you turned your back on the Saviour and on His cause.
Let’s admit up front that if you ring the bell, the world will applaud you for your good sense, and then the world will promptly forget that you ever existed. The applause will die out, those affirming your decision to quit will turn away and forget that you once stood for something worthwhile, and you will always know that in the battle for truth, you were a quitter. My words may appear harsh and condemnatory, but I’m urging you to look beyond the immediate to witness the outcome of your decision.
Again and again, we witness the Word of God urging us to look beyond the immediate. As the writer of the Hebrew Letter draws the missive to a conclusion, he urges those to whom he is writing to look ahead when he writes, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them” [HEBREWS 13:7-9]. Meditate on those who paid the price to stand with Christ. Consider their courage and the impact their lives have had. Are you really willing to make a decision that will ensure that your life has not eternal impact on those who look to you?
In his first missive that would be included in the canon of Scripture, Peter urges followers of Christ, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” [1 PETER 1:3-9]. The outcome of your faith is the salvation of your souls. Stay focused on what really matters.
Peter then encourages us as Christians. He acknowledges that we are facing trials, but puts what is happening in perspective when he writes, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And
“‘If the righteous is scarcely saved,
what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?’
Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good” [1 PETER 4:12-19].
As I’ve said on other occasions, If you want no trouble, don’t say anything, don’t do anything, don’t be anything. Just quit and your life will get easier. However, despite the transient plaudits of earth dwellers, be assured that no one admires a quitter. Though many will praise you for a brief moment because you appear to align with their particular cause, you know that you will forever after be known as someone who was once ardent for Christ. Drift with the current is the counsel you’ll receive, but you know very well that only dead fish drift with the current. Few will condemn you because you join the multitude in going along with the flow, but the cost to your character will be great.
During my early studies at the medical school in Dallas, before each test some wag would have written on the white board, “We have a thousand reasons for failure, and not one single excuse.” The quote was a distorted effort at quoting Rudyard Kipling, who wrote, “We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.” [2] There will always be a reason for why one who followed the Christ quit the service of our King. Looking back, we might say that a pastor wasn’t nice to us, and we quit serving among the saints of God. We’d show that man by quitting! Our pique led us to give in to the moment rather than continuing in the service of the Lord Jesus. Someone didn’t show the appropriate appreciation for the work we performed in the assembly, and we decided we would show them by quitting our work among the saints. We were ridiculed when we tried to be godly at work, and so we became silent, permitting others to mock our Lord and use His Name as a curse word. It is true that “We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER RING THE BELL — The Apostle’s plea to followers of Christ is, “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” [GALATIANS 6:9-10]. The Apostle is pleading with Christians to never give in, to never quit. In contemporary parlance, Paul is saying to us, “Keep on keeping on!”
On October 29, 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressed Harrow School. At the time of this address, Britain was in a fight for national survival. Deserted by friends, shunned by many, her forces suffering defeat following defeat by continental fascists, London being bombarded each night, one might have thought that this great man would counsel caution and urge moderation. However, nearing the end of his address, Mr. Churchill spoke for all of Great Britain, and for himself, saying, “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.” [3] That was, and is, a simple, though powerful message applicable in any situation. Right must never yield to the wrong. Good must never give way to evil.
You may have noticed that throughout the New Testament admonitions to stand firm are repeated. Apparently, those early followers of Christ were in danger of giving way to the pressure to retreat from doing what honoured the Master. Few of us give any thought to the possibility that just as they were in danger of giving way to evil, we are in danger of surrendering to the evil that besets us. This is the reason for the repeated emphasis on standing firm. We are admonished to stand firm because we are in danger of ceasing to stand firm!
Paul concludes his first Letter to the Corinthian Christians by admonishing them, “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” [1 CORINTHIANS 16:13].
Writing the Churches located in the Roman province of Galatia, Paul is compelled to remind them, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” [GALATIANS 5:1]. They needed to put their freedom into practise to deliver them from the bondage of slavery to fear. Putting their freedom into practise would require them to stand firm in the freedom Christ had given.
Drawing the Ephesian Encyclical to a conclusion, the Apostle resorts to what had become a familiar theme—standing firm. Paul wrote, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saint” [EPHESIANS 6:11-18].
The congregation in Philippi was one which gave the Apostle great joy. Yet, even for this congregation, there was a serious danger that they would begin to give way to evil. Therefore, we witness Paul writing, “Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” [PHILIPPIANS 1:27].
Then, as he concludes that missive to this beloved assembly, Paul urged them, “My brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved” [PHILIPPIANS 4:1].
One of Paul’s earliest letters to have been included in the canon of Scripture was his first Letter to the Church in Salonica. Writing these beleaguered saints, the Apostle confessed, “We live, if you are standing fast in the Lord” [1 THESSALONIANS 3:8].
In a second missive to those saints living under constant pressure, the Apostle pleaded, “Brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” [2 THESSALONIANS 2:15].
Nor should we imagine that Paul was alone in his concern that the saints might decide to take a breather from standing firm in the righteousness of the Risen Saviour. Peter was likewise concerned for those to whom he wrote. As he drew his first letter to a close, Paul reminded them of the need to stand firm in the grace of Christ Jesus, writing, “By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it” [1 PETER 5:12].
Stand firm, saint of God. Don’t give in and never quit. Seek the strength that comes from standing firm with the people of God and from looking to Christ the Lord. May I conclude with a personal observation? My ministry in Canada has not been an easy service. I have started or restarted nine churches in British Columbia and Alberta. There is a reason why a church would require a restart. Usually, the congregation has drifted from secure moorings and become wrecked upon hidden reefs. Almost inevitably there are unappointed people who seized control of the assembly with the consequence that they guided the assembly into dangerous shoals.
Confronting such situations ensures that people will be angered, people will have their feelings hurt, people will rage at the pastor and often seek to harm him and his service. There is nothing easy about a ministry of turning a church away from disaster. Tragically, my service often resulted in the church choosing to go its own way while disregarding the cost. That is a hard ministry. There is but one way to handle such pressures that come with such a service before the Lord, and that is to look to Christ.
Of course, I cannot know what your particular pressure is, but I know the only way to overcome that pressure is through looking to Christ. Spend time with Him alone, reading the Word and thinking on what He has given you, presenting your request to Him, knowing that He will give you the needed answer. Amen.
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