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A significant factor that instills ministry resiliency is a keen awareness that God called you to your current position. Remembering your call makes you hesitant to leave and keeps you from bailing out when the going gets rough.
Perhaps Paul offers the most incisive example of persistence fueled by awareness of God's call. His apostolic career was fraught with obstacles and persecution. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, you see a list of pressures he faced: multiple beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, sleep deprivation, hunger—just to name a few.
What kept him going?
One factor was remembering his call as an apostle, which occurred simultaneously with his conversion. At the start of most of his letters, he emphasized God's initiative in his ministry to the Gentiles. He called himself an apostle "not sent from men…but by Jesus" (Gal. 1:1). Repeatedly he said he was an apostle "by the will of God" (Eph. 1:1; Col. 1:1. 1 Tim. 1:1). He often used the passive tense in reference to his call, citing the gospel message "with which I was entrusted" (1 Tim. 1:1, Titus 1:3).
It isn't a stretch to maintain that a strong realization of God's calling enabled Paul to persevere. Why else would he repeatedly refer to the nature of his appointment as an apostle?
How God Leads
Unless I miss my guess, you're thinking that there's a vast difference between the way God called Paul and his typical approach to guiding folks today.
That's correct. Most likely, the Lord didn't lead you to your church staff position, to a specific mission field, or to a leadership role in a parachurch organization through a miraculous manifestation or an out-of-the-blue audible voice from heaven. For us, discerning God's will is more of a process, and it's a lot more subjective. The degree of certainty may not be as high.
Yet the difference in the means God employs doesn't invalidate the principle: knowing He led us to a sphere of service cultivates the endurance needed to fulfill that ministry.
Instead of getting our attention through a supernatural phenomenon, God discloses a need he wants us to meet by speaking to us during a sermon or personal Bible study. Or He directs us through a church leader who confirms a spiritual gift and offers a venue for exercising it. Instead of an ear-splitting voice that comes out of nowhere, we "hear" the silent, yet unmistakable whisper of God's Spirit after an intense round of prayers for wisdom or through the counsel of a godly friend. A method or process of ministry recruitment that's less spectacular doesn't negate the fact that God still speaks and directs his people to particular venues of service.
A Model of Persistence
In the late 1700s, the British economy relied heavily on the slave trade from Africa. The annual export of slaves from Africa's western coast exceeded one hundred thousand, many of those going to British plantations in the West Indies.
A year after converting to Christ, William Wilberforce (1759–1833), a member of Parliament, sensed a call on his life that would keep him in politics. He wrote, "The grand object of my parliamentary existence [is the abolition of the slave trade]. . . . Before this great cause all others dwindle in my eyes."
Wilberforce would need this strong sense of divine call, for the battle for racial justice consumed almost 46 years of his life (1787–1833). Eleven times the House of Commons defeated his motion to end the slave trade. Opponents threatened his life. Men who he thought were good friends severed ties with him. Political pressure to back down escalated, threatening his re-elections.
One stimulant to Wilberforce's persistence came from pastor John Newton, a former slave trader. He reinforced Wilberforce's own belief that God wanted him to pursue this cause at all costs. He told Wilberforce, "It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of His church and for the good of the nation." John Wesley said this in a letter to Wilberforce: "Unless God raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of man and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you?"
His passionate speeches gradually eroded resistance. Twenty years after his first motion, a majority voted for abolition, resulting in a torrent of tears streaming down Wilberforce's face. Yet that vote ended the slave trade, not slavery itself. He fought twenty-six more years before Parliament voted in 1833 to outlaw slave ownership in all British colonies. The vote occurred three days after Wilberforce died.
No matter where or how you serve the Lord, steadfastness depends on knowing God put you there. Change ministries only when He makes the calling to leave as clear as your original calling to your current venue.
This article is adapted with permission fromServe Strong: Biblical Encouragement to Sustain God's Servantsby Terry Powell, Ph.D., released from Leafwood Publishers.
 | Dr. Terry Powell is Faculty Emeritus at Columbia International University, in S. C., where he is an Adjunct Professor in Church Ministries. Dr. Powell writes a blog on faith and depression entitled Penetrating the Darkness. He is the author of Serve Strong,which helps volunteers as well as vocational Christian workers combat discouragement, persevere through weariness, and cultivate endurance for the long haul. Learn More » |
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