The temptation to lose heart in gospel service is a temptation that you will battle till you breathe your last breath. The reason for this is so obvious: we cannot climb out of our own skin!
Because we are what we are, “frail children of dust and feeble as frail”, temptation has a natural landing ground within us. We know that sin’s guilt and prevailing power have been removed, but we know only too well that we have not yet been delivered from sin’s remaining, troubling presence. In 2 Corinthians 4 v7 Paul likens gospel ministers, and by extension all Christians, to “jars of clay”, ordinary, easily broken, nondescript. When we take stock and look at ourselves, we can hardly get over how shallow we are, how inconsistent we are, how lacking we are in love and zeal for our Saviour. Is there a day when you do not cry out to the Lord with John Wesley: “Cure me, Lord, of my intermittent piety”? And if we add to our deep sense of personal unfitness for gospel ministry the accusations of Satan, the temptation to lose heart can be almost overwhelming.
Paul himself was no stranger to the temptation to lose heart. He writes in 2 Corinthians 4 v8-12 of being afflicted in every way, persecuted, struck down, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. This is the background to what Paul writes in 4v1,14: “So we do not lose heart”. What was it that kept the apostle from losing heart?
Christian, be what you are!
The Bible has many ways to describe a Christian. One of the most dramatic descriptions of a Christian, however, is …