Category: The Ministry

Having Compassion in Ministry While Enduring Hardness

Compassion In Ministry

Do you have compassion in ministry while you endure hardness? Over time as problems occur while we are enduring hardness in life and ministry, our hearts and our manner can become hard. We can easily lose compassion when we get accustomed to hardness and cause a distance between ourselves and those we are called to serve. This does not happen to everyone, but I believe it is a temptation to each person in ministry.

Read this verse again. We read it in our first article as we learned about Enduring Hardness in Ministry.

2 Timothy 2:3, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”

All people react to situations differently, some will soften through the battles of life and love more deeply, and others will harden against the roller coaster of emotional and physical strain and distance themselves from the sheep… but how do you endure hardness like a good soldier and still have compassion for God’s people and for lost souls? How do we have a way about us that is contagious?

Compassion Defined Biblically

There are different words used both in the Old Testament and the New Testament that define compassion according to the Strong’s Concordance, but they all have to do with having pity, showing mercy, yearning and feeling sympathy for someone.

Compassion has to do with having pity, showing mercy, and yearning and feeling sympathy for someone.

When Moses was found in the basket in the river, Pharoah’s daughter had compassion on him, and he was fetched out of the water to live as her son for many years. (Exodus 2)
Jesus Christ had compassion upon the people who followed Him, and when He noticed that they looked lost, as sheep having no shepherd, His bowls yearned for them. (Matthew 9:36) Two blind men in the way, begged for Jesus to heal them, and the Bible says in Matthew 20:34, “So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.”

We are all going to go through personal difficulties and struggles with people and situations within our church. In order to obey God’s call on our life to endure like a good solider, we must stay compassionate toward people. We cannot take our frustrations out on our family or God’s sheep and please the Lord. We cannot escape to technology and neglect our Bible or relationships and please the Lord. Sometimes the grit of enduring is going to take some huge humbling of ourselves and some setting aside of our wants and disappointments so we can minister effectively with compassion.

How Do You Have Compassion?

Have the determination to make a difference.

We must be the type of people who Jude describes in verse 22, “And some have compassion, making a difference.” Not everyone has bowels that yearn for the souls of other people or he would not have said “And some have compassion.”  We do need to rise above the mundane and difficult and know that our calling is for eternal purposes even within the trenches of spiritual battle. Ask yourself whether you truly want to be a person that makes a difference. If you do, then compassion must be incorporated into your heart and life… but it must come from God. If you truly want it, then ask God for it, and then ask God what He wants you to do to show it.

Have a heart and eyes likes Christ.

When Jesus looked upon the multitude and had compassion on them, he saw them in their spiritual condition. He saw them as lost sheep having no shepherd. They were innocent in many cases toward the danger that was lurking in their lives and hearts. If we have a close relationship with God and are familiar with the Bible, we can begin to recognize the snares that hold them and the only hope they have in this life is Jesus Christ.

It reminds me of a song whose lyrics say,

“Let me see this world, dear Lord,
As though I were looking through Your eyes.
A world of men who don’t want You Lord,
But a world for which You died.
Let me kneel with You in the garden,
Blur my eyes with tears of agony;
For if once I could see this world the way You see,
I just know I’d serve You more faithfully.”

~Mike Otto

Remain in contact with people’s needs.

Distancing ourselves from people and their problems, even while we are trying to sort through our own, kills compassion. It can cause us to rise above them in pride or disregard them in a lack of care or immersion of selfishness.

Ways to Remain in Contact With People’s Needs

  • Opening our homes with heavenly hospitality.
  • Visiting people who are hurting or struggling.
  • Sending meaningful messages to people through text, e-mail, or through cards and letters.
  • Saying more than “hello,” but lingering to find out how people really are.
  • Praying with and for them during their battles.
  • Following up and finding out how things are going at a later date.
  • Listening without interruption.
  • Meeting an immediate need they may have physically, emotionally, or spiritually. This includes taking meals to someone, helping them with groceries, writing out verses for them, sitting with them when they do not need to be alone.
  • At times it may mean that you need to witness to them and tell them about salvation before meeting any other needs.

We do not have to be doormats or enablers when people are going through problems. You will know when the Holy Spirit prompts your heart to make a difference. This does not mean you neglect your own personal problems that may need addressed, it means you can do both. You need people as much as they need you. I find that many times when I reach out to someone else, that it alleviates my self-pity. When I look for verses to encourage someone, that it also teaches and encourages me. There’s something about seeking first the kingdom of God and finding that your needs truly are met in every part of life.

So as you go on through some hardness, I exhort you to continue to have compassion and find ways to meet the needs of other people as you look through the eyes and heart of God and minister to the sheep God has called you to.

The next article in this series will be a question and answer post later this week about having compassion in ministry with insights from other people in ministry.

Enduring Hardness in Ministry

Enduring Hardness in Ministry

Ministry is hard work! The Bible instructs all Christians that they should endure hardness, like a good solider. Many of us do well enduring hardness because in many ways it just becomes a way of life through trials and working with people.

II Timothy 2:3 says, “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”

My husband and I recently watched an of a TV show about how special operations military men get chosen to be a part of the units that turn into  Army Rangers that are the best of the best within the Army. The men attempting to become Army Rangers try out for 8 weeks under very stressful situations of exercise, limited sleep, small amounts of food, and it eventually builds up to having to lead operations in the woods of Georgia and the swamps of Florida to complete a mission while explosions are going off and shots are being fired. Out of over 300 men that began the training, I believe only 90 made it. It was hard to watch the men go through the hardness of the instructors while they were physically exhausted for weeks. The purpose their instructors gave was to simulate real situations they would go through if they were a part of the Ranger operational team as well as train them to rely on the soldier working beside them completely.

After watching personal interviews of several of the men and their instructors, you could see a hardness about their face. I know the life of a soldier is not easy and they see things that most Americans cannot fathom and they still go on… but you may notice spiritual soldiers in the work of the Lord can begin to hold that same amount of hardness in their face because of the battles they face from people or other spiritual matters.

God allows us to have spiritual battles in our lives. Satan attacks from every angle. Personal discouragement, immediate and extended family issues, church problems, finances, you name it and it can probably become a platform on which Satan can wage a battle against you, the people you love, or the church where you serve.

Hardness

The Greek word, kakopatheo, according to the Strong’s Concordance, is used in 2 Timothy 2:3 as the word hardness. It means “hardship, to be afflicted, endure afflictions, suffer troubles.”

Life is Hard. Period. For Everyone.

Ministry is Hard. Period. For Everyone.

We all have an equal opportunity to endure hardness… but we will not all do it in a way that pleases the Lord.

Enduring hardness means enduring rejection. Rejection of the values you hold dear, rejection of the Bible’s truths, rejection of God Himself and the priceless sacrifice Christ gave. Rejection of you personally when people decide to use you temporarily until their life gets better and they move on. More rejection of you or maybe even your spouse or children.

Enduring hardness means enduring sorrow. Sorrow in knowing the consequences of sin that await those that choose the path of the foolish. Sorrow in feeling alone in the work of the Lord. Sorrow in the unknown answers of the questions  you harbor in your heart.  Sorrow in the losses you experience when people you serve walk away.

Enduring Hardness means having faith when you cannot see. God can see all things, past, present, and future, and we cannot. We do not have the spiritual night goggles to be able to see the purposes of our trials on earth as we walk often through the valley of the shadow of death, so we must walk in faith. Walking in faith is not easy, sometimes it is like dragging our body through the mud, clutching to our firearm, keeping our head down low as the shots of the enemy fire above our heads. Faith is knowing that our spiritual safety is in God’s hand and that there are moments in time where the light of God’s Word and His Spirit will show  us the answers and provide for our needs. Faith must be toward all things in this life, whether material, financial, emotional, or spiritual.

Enduring hardness means extending yourself.  You can extend yourself until you want to no longer give. Sometimes it is extending your time and giving people more time than they seem to be worth. It’s extending your hand to “give to him that needeth,” even when they never seem to give to anyone else. It’s extending hospitality and opening your home to people who have allowed their kids to jump all over your furniture in the past. It is  extending the spiritual help someone needs to keep themselves going all while never expecting much in return.

Enduring hardness means dealing with offenses. People will hurt you and offend you. The Bible says that offenses will come, and they seem to abound when you work in the ministry. They come from the most likely of sources and sometimes blindside you from the person you did not expect. We must endure the hardness of offenses and extend forgiveness often when it is not even asked for in return or acknowledged when we are sinned against. Experiencing hurt can be hard and providing forgiveness at times is impossible, until we look at Christ’s forgiveness of our own sins.

Enduring hardness means identifying with Christ. Jesus Christ was the man of sorrows that endured the cross as He bore our shame. (Hebrews 12:2) Christ was persecuted, and said that when we go through persecution, it is because He and the prophets were also persecuted (Matthew 5:12). Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus, “…was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus Christ came to earth and identified with man in becoming the God-Man (100% God and 100% man) and the experience allowed Him to know what it was like to be a man.

When we identify with Christ through enduring the hardness of this life, then we understand Him and the sorrow He went through when He took our sins on the cross.

He endured the hardest obstacle of His life, giving up the Ghost, losing His life for the sake of ours. In many ways it is hard to even comprehend, but again, it was for me and for you. How could we endure as a good soldier if we did not have a Commander that has also gone through the trenches of this life and succeeded?

On the TV show that I mentioned, each instructor had experienced the Army Ranger training themselves, the real combat missions on the battlefield, and life threatening dangers, before they were allowed to become an instructor. They were able to encourage those that were attempting to complete the course because they have been through it all themselves. They were able to direct and give pointers at certain times during the course because of their experiences. Jesus Christ gives us pointers and encouragement because He knows what it is like to be in human flesh and endure the hardness of this world. What a loving God we serve!

Why should we endure?

The end of 2 Timothy 2:3 says, “that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”

Our endurance as a good soldier pleases God, who called us to ministry.

AND We have THE Hero of all Heroes to look up to! Jesus can help us to be able to endure the hardness of ministry and when God seeks to find pleasure in our work for Him then we know that our work is worthwhile.

The next article in this mini-series will be about having compassion in ministry while you are enduring hardness.

 

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Healing From Deep Ministry Hurts

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The first article I posted in this mini-series was about our visit to a hidden lake in the mountains of Colorado called Burned By Deep Ministry Hurts. As we drove up to the Trapper’s Lake area there were burned trees from a previous year’s forest fire, they stuck up like toothpicks, monuments of life now hurt and dead. Being burned in ministry can leave us feeling dead like that forest, with little hope of new life.

Burns in the ministry are caused by traumatic experiences that deeply wound you by a person or people within your church, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or a member of the community or family that has sought to do you harm.

These fires from others can be directly aimed at you publicly by fiery darts or they can be like arson, hidden fires built in secret, only to be discovered when the troubles have been discovered after the smoke and flames have done considerable damage. Burns are not usually caused by the normal service-to-service grievances of people.

These burns from ministry can last for a long time. They may need to be cleaned on a regular basis until they begin to heal, because usually the result of extreme ministry heartache is a battle with forgiveness and bitterness. It may also mean that a choice has to be made to leave your ministry and take time to rest and regroup (not quit entirely). It may mean that you need to stay to help the hurt sheep heal alongside yourself. The possibilities are endless depending on the hurt and the ministry needs.

There will be a time of regrowth if you respond properly to life’s circumstances and allow God to work in your heart through them. The main photo (above) is a picture of a wildflower taken on the same day as I took the photos in the first article of the forest. Beauty has returned to the once burned forest.

Galatians is a great restoration book. God spoke to me during one of my battles of being burned specifically from chapters 5 and 6.

Galatians 5:7-10 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

Ye did run well – Paul comments that the Galatians had done a good job in the race of life. God also notices the race you were running before you were hurt so badly.

Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? – Apparently Paul is giving the Galatians a little exhortation because they stopped running. Why did they stop? Someone hindered them. Paul did not allow them to get off the hook so easily because they stopped running, he gently reminded them that they had stopped obeying the truth.

When we are hurt it is easy to come up with excuses to blame our pain on a person or thing.  Our faith can dwindle as we substitute once godly living for any and everything else because we do not want to fix the hurt or get up and get going again. Paul points out that we should not allow any person or group of people to hinder us from obeying the truth.

Healing cannot happen without obedience.

This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. – God calls people into the ministry, and His calling is without repentance.  Romans 11:29 says, For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. To change our mind about ministry and just quit can be dangerous, God’s will does not always change because we are going through difficulties in our ministry. If you are persuaded to quit or to do any other thing besides what God called you to do, then the persuasion did not come from God.

Please see The Differences Between Quitting and Resting if you have questions about whether you should quit or rest.

Yes, there will be times where someone will be forced from their ministry because of a particular person or situation. If this has happened to you, God still has a plan, purpose, and calling for your life.

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. – This verse is familiar because it is preached  regularly in regard to sin, a little ounce of sin will grow, like yeast makes bread rise. Within the context of the verse, I believe it is safe to say, the leaven is within the person that has stopped running the race. It pinpoints how the small thoughts of quitting will persuade you to go specifically against the calling of God. As you begin to step back from the fire of the situation, please do not let doubts enter your mind that are contrary to God’s will. Running away is not a proper solution and does not allow God to work His original plans.

I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: – Paul gently encourages the Galatians, saying in a way, “I know you have been tempted to walk away from the truth, and I know you know that a little sin will mess up your whole life, but I have confidence that because and through the Lord you will not change your mind and stop running in the race God has called you to…”

Wow, isn’t it amazing what a little belief in someone (and the Lord) can do!? I find this part of the passage so encouraging! Would to God when we are healing from difficult circumstances that there would be someone to walk up and recognize the hurt and cheer us on to keep going in the ministry marathon. “You can do it, I know you can!” Those little words of encouragement can be priceless in such hardships and the complications of ministry.

If you receive encouragement during these times please do not take it for granted. Cherish the people that will cheer you on to keep following God’s will for your life. You will be wise to never shun them or shut them out. Embrace the encouragers, wise counselors, and peace makers in your life, and let them know their words have made a difference in your life.

But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be. – Watch out! Paul is really making what sounds like a threat or a promise toward the type of people who cause hurt to Christians. He gives a warning shot, “God’s gonna git ’em!” Those that cause trouble and hinder God’s children, even if they are fellow church members, have judgment coming.

While we do not rejoice in the judgments that are headed toward people who have hurt and hindered us, we do need to rest in God’s ability to avenge the hurt. We are not responsible to take things into our own hands. God will work on our behalf.

Romans 12:19 says, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

The reason why I chose this passage in the context of healing from deep ministry hurts is because I know how tempting it is to want to walk away and pursue other endeavors that will not remind us of the hurt.  Most people do not realize the sober reality of their actions may cause a ministry, marriage, or family to burn to the ground because they have made the choice to play with fire. When people do not see the big picture we must remember…

God has given us a high calling to serve Him and He called you knowing hurts would happen. He found you worthy to bear the pain because He knew you would become better for it.

Final Thoughts

God will exchange the ashes of the fires for beauty, heal your hurts, and regrow you and strengthen you.

Keep the faith and keep running dear friends, and as my pastor says, “we’re the best God’s got, so we can’t quit now.”