Whatever you are going through on any given day, there is tremendous help, hope and strength in meditating on the nearness and goodness of God.
Far too often we entertain unhealthy, accusatory and fear-inducing ideas (such as “Here we go again”, or “I don’t have what it takes”, or “This is so hard”).
Instead, practice saying this:
“The Holy Spirit of God Himself is in me”
“God is supplying the strength I need to get through this”
“With God, I will go through this with joy and peace”
“I know that God will bring me through. God is the Victor here, not the circumstance”
“Let’s watch and see how God works through this”
Please, practice these kinds of healthy, faith-building and God-honoring statements and then rest in the knowledge that God has you.
One thing I know about life and ministry is that you carry a heavy load. You carry it for yourself, family, friends and for your congregation. Somedays, by the amazing grace of God, it seems like the load is so light that you forget it’s even there and thank God for the joy of the calling. Other times it feels like the load is so heavy it’s going to kill you.
So what can we do with this heavy load?
One thing is that we simply must recognize that we were never called to carry it alone. We need to be yoked to Jesus. He is able to carry anything with ease. He is able to bear up under the weight of the load and yet still shelter us by His side as we walk together with Him.
Second, like Aaron and Hur and Moses, we were never called to carry the load alone. Instead we need people who will listen to us, cry with us and pray with and for us. Ministry is one of those “two person lift” jobs that will injure or maim you if you try it alone.
Third, the heavy load sometimes is made heavier by things we were never meant to carry. Besides being yoked to Jesus and having the aid of God-given co-laborers, we also should pray to recognize what is unnecessary, unhealthy baggage that we need to leave behind.
I prayed for you today, because the heavy load threatens to steal all joy, crush our souls and sentence us to a life of discouragement and misery. But God has a saving plan not just for our souls but also for our overall well-being.
Isaiah 40:31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
One thing I know about life and ministry is that you carry a heavy load. You carry it for yourself, family, friends and for your congregation. Somedays, by the amazing grace of God, it seems like the load is so light that you forget it’s even there and thank God for the joy of the calling. Other times it feels like the load is so heavy it’s going to kill you.
So what can we do with this heavy load?
One thing is that we simply must recognize that we were never called to carry it alone. We need to be yoked to Jesus. He is able to carry anything with ease. He is able to bear up under the weight of the load and yet still shelter us by His side as we walk together with Him.
Second, like Aaron and Hur and Moses, we were never called to carry the load alone. Instead we need people who will listen to uus, cry with us and pray with and for us. Ministry is one of those “two person lift” jobs that will injure or maim you if you try it alone.
Third, the heavy load sometimes is made heavier by things we were never meant to carry. Besides being yoked to Jesus and having the aid of God-given co-laborers, we also should pray to recognize what is unnecessary, unhealthy baggage that we need to leave behind.
I prayed for you today, because the heavy load threatens to steal all joy, crush our souls and sentence us to a life of discouragement and misery. But God has a saving plan not just for our souls but also for our overall well-being.
Isaiah 40:31 Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.
Life and ministry can be really, really hard. There are expectations, obligations, emergencies, obstacles, opportunities and more! And as we seek to navigate through all of this and yet remain faithful to God and to our calling, we make mistakes. We make mistakes of judgment, we make mistakes of stewardship, we make mistakes of speech. I’m not talking about sin here, just about mistakes stemming from our limited knowledge and mistakes that occur when we get in a hurry, overcommit, or just plain forget. Our mistakes often hurt people and possibly even seem to hurt our ministry. But the question is, do you give yourself grace when you mess up? Do you forgive yourself? Or do you agree with the devil, beat yourself up and live under a fog/weight of condemnation?
God offers us grace and mercy. He even offers grace upon grace. He forgives, cleanses, heals and delivers. His mercies are new every morning. He says to us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And yet even though God says He can and will forgive (and when we ask Him to we receive that forgiving, redeeming grace in our lives) so why is it sometimes so hard to forgive ourselves?
Whether you forgot something, or overpromised and under-delivered, whether your mistake cost money, time, energy or resources for yourself, someone else or even the ministry you are in, are you will to forgive yourself, offer grace and try again? There is freedom in forgiveness and with grace comes the opportunity to try again, so I encourage you: cut yourself some slack. Stop expecting perfection from yourself. Don’t beat yourself up and never agree with the condemnation or accusations of the enemy. Instead receive God’s grace, offer that grace to others (including yourself) and then walk in the peace and freedom that grace is able to redeem all of the messes we seem so adept at making.
After all, remember: Jesus makes all things new! And that includes what we messed up.
But here is the point: we all have opinions. We all have preferences. We all have things we like more or less than other things.
But what are we as Christians supposed to do with our opinions? And how do we know which opinions are God-honoring and Christlike? How do we discern which opinions don’t matter and which ones do?
Should every opinion become a talking point online and should every preference become a dividing line? Is it really necessary or helpful to create protest groups and counter-protest groups over every little difference?
Of course we know that in theory we should listen to one another and that we all have a “right” to our own opinion. We also know that it can be okay to agree to disagree and we each hope that others who disagree with us will still love us, accept us or at least “live and let live”. The harder part is when we are the ones who will have to love our enemies. The more difficult task is when we are the ones who will have to bite our tongue and decide whether our opinion really matters that much in this instance. The really hard part is when we have to decide that (temporarily) letting someone else believe and live something we don’t think is true or right is more necessary and important than expressing or defending our own perspective.
Dear Christian, I pray that you and I will realize that God Himself does not immediately and directly rebuke every single thing that is less than perfect in us, all at once and as soon as He sees it. God has shown us that “there is a season for everything” and that He makes all things beautiful “in His time”. If God does not sit you and I down and condemningly review every single thing we have ever believed or done that is wrong but rather He takes us bit by bit, moment by moment on a journey of letting go of unholy, ungodly, unChristlike things, then can we not also, bite our tongue, pray for the person in front of us (with whom we disagree) and patiently walk with them so that they might encounter God and let God change them in His time and in His ways?
I am so thankful for the friends I have had along my life’s journey who have seen and heard things from me that were far from perfect and holy and yet they loved me in spite of those things and continued to unite with me in friendship. I am so thankful for the people whom God has used to help me see my mistaken ideas and sinful behaviors and one by one release them into His care. I am so thankful that God is still working on me and that God has not written me off because of my opinions but rather is committed to loving me all that way through this journey I am on. Your and my love and behavior can either help people move towards God and Christlikeness or can drive them away. I still think Mountain Dew is the best soda ever and I don’t really like coffee all that well, but I hope you can love me anyway and that we can still be friends who are recipients of God’s grace trying to discover what it is to be like Jesus.
Let’s face it, in this world people look down upon or judge people because they are different in age, race or gender. Furthermore it seems that people look down upon others because of the different accomplishments, socio-economic status or skills/talents. I want to write this blog post to encourage you to not let people look down on you because your church didn’t grow as fast as theirs or because you don’t have the same ministries or style of preaching or philosophy of ministry as they do. Don’t let people look down on you because you pastor a smaller church or have a smaller building or some other difference. Obviously we can’t stop people from being judgmental, nor can we retaliate when they are, rather this Scripture is about not allowing their judgments or their attitude to interfere with your and my obedience to Christ and what He has called us to do. Your position is just as important as theirs, your church, your preaching, your ministry is just as important as theirs. God has called each and every one of us to our own respective ministries because there is a present need and God has gifted us to meet that need in our context according to His plan.
So the next time you feel like “less” of a pastor because of some difference between you and “them” just stop, give thanks to God for the opportunities you have in front of you and pray that you and every other pastor you know will be faithful to the call God has placed upon us. We all have a unique ministry in a particular setting, and God planned it that way and it is beautiful what God will accomplish as we are faithful to our own task and as we don’t judge others or allow their judgements to impede our faithful perseverance.
You reach down deep, you try with all your might and you still just don’t have anything else to give. Whether it is to your congregation, your friends or your family, you just know that no matter how much you want to help them you feel dry, empty and tired.
In a particular way, pastors are susceptible to this type of fatigue because of the constant demands, the relentless spiritual attacks and the deep needs our people have.
I pray for you that God will give you rest, replenish your soul, fill you with His joy and help you to overcome by His Holy Spirit at work inside of you.
Please make sure to reach out to others who can help carry the load and can offer encouragement and wisdom as you keep pressing on. Take time off work, make sure to fill your heart and mind through worship, meditation on the Lord and sacred time with God in prayer and the Word. You may be on the brink of burnout, but God is able to fill you to full and overflowing. Just don’t try to do it alone and don’t keep pouring out of your emptiness, it won’t help others anyway. People need to be ministered to out of the depths of riches that we pastors receive from God, so if we are empty we need to take a sabbatical (whether for one afternoon, or a day/week/month) so that we can give to others according to the beautiful gifts that we ourselves have received from our good, good Father.Let us recognize that we must never abandon our family, marriage or personal health as we sacrifice for the kingdom.
Please know that I understand your pain and am praying for you. Feel free to reach out if you want a listening ear. And no matter what you do: when you take a break from serving, never take a break from God, and recognize that God can replenish when nothing else can.
I thank God for pastors like you who sacrifice for His glory and for His kingdom,
Unless you are living alone on a deserted island or have no feelings or are invincible, something in this life has “happened” to you.
You may have been fired, been told off, been in an accident, come down with a sickness, lived during a pandemic, had a fallout in one of your relationships or some other painful crisis, but whatever excruciating and stressful thing you have been facing the question you now are asking is: “Now what?” Let’s take a minute to examine what we can do next when our entire life seems to shift…
First, of all, whatever you are facing, remember that you are not alone. God is all around you, He is near you, listening to you and speaking His words of truth and wisdom to you. This is true whether you are close to God or far from Him. Whether you have been running from God or walking faithfully with Him day by day, He is the God who is present, the God who sees and hears and the One you and I always need to turn to.
Second, don’t do anything hastily. Far too often when things are decided quickly they are rushed and we are not as cognizant of the far-reaching consequences of today’s choices. Make sure to seek godly counsel, pray, wait before God and read the Bible. Decide that you will trust God to take care of you, trust God to give you wisdom and strength and trust God to lead you even if you don’t know where He is going or how He is going to get you there.
Third, please be very careful to take your own “vitals”. Just like a patient in a hospital needs to have heart rate and blood pressure and temperature, etc, closely monitored, so too, you and I need to gauge our attitude, emotions and thoughts and compare them to Jesus to determine whether they are appropriate or helpful. If any attitudes, emotions or thoughts are unChristlike, try and seek out why you are having them and then deliberately give them to God, asking Him to replace them with His responses. Furthermore when or if you determine the source of the unhealthy reactions, be careful to deal with those root causes as well so that you can truly find the deep healing and vitality that you need.
Finally, I believe the Bible invites us to accept that however we got where we are, God is present to work things out for His glory and our good. No matter whose fault, no matter the choices that could have made things different, recognize that from this moment forward we can ask the Lord to change us, use us, fill us, work through us and otherwise redeem the mess. There is no situation that is hopeless and there is no person or place that is God-forsaken. Please accept this reality that God can save completely those who come to Him.
I pray that in the midst of your pain and your life-altering situation, that you will let God take charge and that you will find His perfect peace, amazing grace, unconditional love and remarkable redemption to make all things new!
What do you do when your friends, parishioners you love and respect, people who support you in every other way, don’t show up to Bible studies, worship services and ministry events that you have planned? I’m not talking about people who are on the fence, running from God or openly antagonistic towards you, God or His church. I am talking about those who serve on the board, go to lunch with you, love your family, pray for you, help in every way possible, but then make it clear by their actions that they don’t have time or interest in the Bible study you prepared?
I want to give you a few things to think about and take action on which can help you when you inevitably face this circumstance…
First of all, it is very easy to slip into thinking that people’s behavior regarding church is about you as the pastor. It makes sense, much of the life and ministry of the church in some way, shape or form is connected to the pastor. BUT, please recognize that not every decision people make about church is about you. It might be but it is also very possible that they have so many other factors they are considering. Don’t immediately assume that it is about you. Be humble enough to consider that as the pastor they need your prayers, the messages God gives you and the love of God flowing through you, not your insecurity. (Ouch, preaching to myself here!)
Second, making assumptions about people’s motives or intended outcomes is a very dangerous thing to do. Assuming things, guessing, second-guessing, stewing, etc won’t help you to build a stronger relationship with them, prepare you to minister to them or help them to overcome whatever it is they are working through. Instead of making guesses, make it your commitment to give it to the Lord and then reach out to your friends and with gentleness and courage, expressing your genuine concern for them and how you’ve missed them, ask them why.
Third, even in the absence of some people aspire to learn the significance of ministering to those who are present with the same amount of passion as if it was a full house. Certainly be prayerful and introspective about what you are preparing and teaching; make sure it is what God has revealed to you and that you are prepared and operating by the unction/anointing of His Holy Spirit. Be excited and be prepared. Make sure that your lack of preparation or poor presentation (don’t be boring!) is not contributing to people’s absence. Be certain you are teaching what God has given you in the way He wants you to, without allowing outside factors to discourage you or change your message or the manner in which you present it.
I am so sorry that you have had to face the pain of people not showing up to the Bible studies, messages and ministries you have diligently prepared. It hurts and can feel like personal rejection. Sadly sometimes it is meant to sting and people are trying to spurn you. Much more often however people are so consumed with so many other things that they just overlook and miss out on what God has prepared for them (forgetting too that it might impact other people, even their own pastor).
Please keep inviting people, keep loving people, keep being as passionate and excited about God’s word when preaching to 5 people as if you were preaching to 500 or more. Make sure to reach out to people and let them know you genuinely miss them and that the entire church fellowship is different without their presence. But above all, remember to do all that you do for the glory of God and not the approval of humanity. God can use you as you are fully surrendered and obedient, just don’t get stuck because your people are.
Here is the difficult news: you will always have someone who thinks you should be doing something different than you are.
Don’t worry about that. You don’t live or minister to make them happy. You aren’t seeking their approval. You won’t stand before them on judgment day.
There is something that is common to all of us, and that is that we do not like letting people down, we don’t like conflict and we don’t like disapproval from people we respect. We also don’t like persecution, belittling or bullying. And although you may have heard people say that Christians in America don’t know what persecution is, the reality is that when we are simply seeking to love people to Jesus, preach His Word and invite people to receive His promises and then other people go out of their way to gossip about us, impune our character, defy our leadership or directly confront or attack us with their words, it really hurts and we can clearly say we know what it is to suffer for Christ.
Here is the good news: when we participate in the suffering of Christ we will also participate in the glory of Christ. (see 1 Peter 4:13) We also know that we are blessed when people “insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of (Christ)” – Matthew 5:11.
So please, when you are judged, rejected, maligned or otherwise count is all joy (James 1:2) and remember that you can “rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:12)
Trust me, I know how much it hurts, how easy it is to second guess yourself and even the PTS (post-traumatic stress) that occurs each and every time someone else comes up to you with “constructive criticism” or a “little advice” but please know that God is with you and for you, and even when it stings or even cuts like a knife God is able to work deeply in and through you for healing, and for the sharing His grace, truth and love, regardless of how the people around you react.
I will be praying that you will indeed have the enveloping and comforting love of Jesus to help you through your own personal pain and also the confidence and boldness of God to help you love those who hurt you and minister to those that God brings before you.
Pastor Michael Johnson 