As a minister in the local church, one becomes emotionally, physically and spiritually attached to their job. It can’t be helped, and I’m not sure that it’s a bad thing. As ministers our heart should be in it. It should be an outpouring of what God has put on the inside. Our ministry should be what naturally just happens because we are passionately seeking that to which God has called us. Unfortunately, this leaves us in a very vulnerable state. While pouring out our heart, it often gets rejected by those to whom we are desperately trying to minister, or those with whom we are ministering.
Most of us have been there: We have shared our sweat, blood and tears with someone who suddenly abandons the vision or maybe even attempts to run away with it. We spend months or years spending all of our energy in training and equipping someone who turns right around and walks away from it all claiming no opportunity was made available to them. We pour out our heart and dreams to someone we care about thinking they will support us in our efforts, only to find they consider it frivolous. We love and love and love and forgive, forgive, forgive a difficult person over and over again who rejects the acceptance and spitefully lies about who we are. We pursue an avenue of provision only to be ignored or belittled. And over and over again we offer our heart to the Maker, who makes it soft again, and we put it out there once more.
This phenomenon is no new thing. There is hardly a minister mentioned in the Word who has not dealt with the pain of rejection. Joseph’s brothers so rejected his dream that they set out to kill him. David felt the stab from his own son, Absalom. It was a rare moment when a prophet was actually accepted by the people of the times. Paul had to withstand much rejection throughout his ministry. And Jesus, of course, was met with the ultimate rejection.
So, when our heart is rejected, because, no doubt, it will be, how can we carry on in our ministry? While these may not offer you the solace you are looking for, these three things have kept me going even with my broken heart.
1. Remember WHO YOU ARE.
Although it might seem like it at times, our ministry is not ALL that we are. We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. We are His chosen people created for Him. And regardless of how long, how hard, how often, how simply, how effectively, how truthfully we serve in ministry; God will still love us just the same. He will still call us His children. He will still hold us close to His heart. Remember that you are His.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6
2. Remember your WHY.
What is it that persuaded you to serve in the first place? What cause stole your heart? Whenever I am discouraged and down trodden, I hear these questions in my mind, and I must say that the cause still makes my heart beat a little faster. It still stirs me to love the lost AND the found. It still calls my name, and I still want to answer. Your WHY is written on your heart, and even if you have to dig to find it, the rediscovery is well worth the dirty work.
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 18-20
3. Remember WHO HE IS.
If you feel as though you have been burned so badly that you find yourself questioning who you really are, or your why is too far buried or seems empty now, it’s time to return to your first love. Seek the Father. He will never disappoint. He will never forsake you. There is never enough anger or resentment to send Him away. Let Him be your refuge. Surrender to Him your bleeding heart and let Him mend and heal and renew.
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, and shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food. For there shall be a day when the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.’” Jeremiah 31:3-6
What has helped you to minister beyond rejection? What scriptures offer hope to your bleeding heart? What is your WHY that calls you beyond your own strength?
This article was originally posted at RockSongChurch.org.
Confessions of a Water Walker 