Is ministry a thankless job? Never, it isn't. Don't ever let anyone or anything make you think it is. God rewards.
It is often said that the people in ministry are lazy people. How they should go get regular jobs. How they should never do that in a full time capacity. How they have made themselves nuisance to society and so on.
In spite of the efforts put in to bring the love and the truth of Christ to many, to encourage and to provoke people to good works, to help people develop a relationship with God that impacts on the lives of people around, on businesses and on society, people still turn around to say such things and to treat the minister as the scum of the earth.
But that's where the conviction of the minister comes to play. Ministers who have necessary convictions don't get deterred by such unguarded, unreasonable and unthoughtful comments.
Our conviction must begin with the knowing that our efforts aren't primarily to be acceptable by men. You can imagine that Jesus Christ, our forerunner and captain, who died for mankind already knew that only a few will take the strait way that leads to life. Yet, He knew that the way must be prepared for those few who would pass through. Be assured that no matter how big the crowd that follows you, either in real life, on social media or on both, you will not be accepted by all. Don't let that deter you. Don't forget that Jesus said, what's highly acclaimed of men is an abomination to the Lord. We aren't in ministry for the accolades nor for the popularity even if it's there.
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We also must have the conviction that we aren't doing ministry to have a better life or to make a living. It isn't the kind of regular job people do with the ultimate purpose of earning and laying up treasures on the earth. So we can't judge how well we are doing the way others do, checking our bank accounts and how much wealth we command. That's not how it works in Christ's ministry where we are.
We also must be convinced about how we are sustained. When we fail to understand that, we may lose our boasting. Ministry is spiritual work, it isn't like the university lecturer or the stand up comedian, it isn't like the motivational public speaker, whose job is to excite the emotions or the intellects of the audience but one that delivers to the spirit of the audience. Those ones mentioned will do their jobs and get paid for it by their audiences. Their bellies justifiably push them on. But here we aren't pushed by our bellies, we are under a spiritual commission.
The adage, "He who pays the piper, dictates the tune" also applies here. This tune that may be foolishness to the hearer won't be paid for by an angry audience ready to stone you, rather by Him who commissioned you to go preach. O yes, He will use people first before having to make you pick money from the mouth of the fish, or before multiplying bread and fish to satisfy, but we are not to set our hearts or faith on the men, otherwise they will eventually start to dictate the tune. Customer isn't king in ministry, if we start to please men, we have been told it'll stop us from being servants of Christ even if we treat all men with love. We aren't selling the gospel. We are delivery men, postmen, we only deliver, not expecting payment from the receiver.
But just as Jesus Christ lived it out as the perfect example for us, it is God's supernatural responsibility to raise men and women who will, as ministering unto the Lord, minister to us out of their substance. It won't be everyone that'll do that and it won't be us who would choose those who would. God may leave a billionaire to send a poor widow with every need met. But it would be Him, not us, who determines those He had sent as givers to us. So we were told not to go from house to house, we are to depend on Him instead. A labourer is worthy of his wages so said Christ concerning preachers and He pays.
We must be convinced of these facts as we step out in obedience to the call. It is our convictions and not our convenience that'll determine how we endure the hardness that comes with living this way.
We shouldn't be deceived to thinking that it's all ease in ministry, it isn't and it won't be, except we had lost something along the way. We'll always have that period we'll have to trust God even for an insignificant need to prove our dependence on Him.
We were told to endure hardness as good soldiers of the Lord and not as those who entangle themselves with civilian affairs. A minister of God must know the difference between the things that please Him who enlisted him and those things that constitute civilian affairs in his life. And that will help him to know that being in ministry comes with hardness which must be endured. We must be convinced of this, otherwise every little problem or need will push us off track.
Men may be unthankful but we aren't working for men. They aren't our employers. They aren't the ones to judge us, they also don't have the responsibility of paying us. We shouldn't be covetous to begin to look at what they have been given by God even if through our prayer and intercessory efforts before God. We should be assured God owes no man, He won't keep what we deserve, He's a faithful employee and He pays.
Let's keep our convictions and pride. Let's depend on God's love and faithfulness. Let's learn quickly how both to be abased and to abound and to be content in all things as we await the coming of the Lord in our situations.
The job may look thankless but be assured that God won't be unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love. Be assured that those faithful brethren that He has raised to minister to us won't fail even if we won't look unto them. Be assured that He isn't one not touched by the feeling of our infirmities seeing He Himself was once hounded by tax collectors and had to resort to a miracle to pay... We are in good company.
Be assured that at that moment of being dumbfounded, the Spirit of God will instruct what to do to solve that problem. Wait for the instructions, wait for the leading of our Standby and Comforter, He won't fail, yield to Him and you'll see the salvation of the Lord.
And when we have to endure the hardness involved, don't go Awol, don't devise your own ways, it'll lead to error. Don't be like Judas. Be assured that He has a way planned out to meet the need before the need came, and it may not be what you think.
God sees your labours, keep at at it, keep up the good work, your labour in the Lord isn't in vain.
Good morning!
Can you please send this to your pastor and to other ministers around you, you won't know how much it'll bless them. Shalom
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