Have you ever grown “faint” [to be weak or to fail in heart] in efforts to minister to others? I have two grace pastor friends who suffered such poor treatment from their churches that they permanently got out of the ministry. When I called to encourage them, they were hurt and completely drained spiritually. Most pastors know how they feel too. Christians can be unresponsive, unappreciative, overly critical, petty, and simply cruel.

Paul knew others in his day had similar struggles with being “faint” in the ministry and their daily walk with Christ. When a heavy load of legalism discouraged many in Galatia, Paul taught them to stand fast in their liberty, and he encouraged them by saying: “…Let us not be wearying in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9). Paul, too, resisted the urge to faint in discouragement. But several things sustained him. He said: “Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not” (II Corinthians 4:1). God’s great mercy given in forgiveness and eternal life, rather than eternal punishment, caused Paul to see ministry for the Lord as only his reasonable service. But beyond this, he viewed ministry as a great responsibility. He did not faint because it was a privilege to serve the Lord. Eternal souls hung in the balance, as they needed the gospel, and those already saved needed ministry. With this in mind, he pressed on in faithful ministry “…commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (II Corinthians 4:2). Paul also saw the influence and impact he could have on the saints as a motivator to keep him going in ministry. He wrote: “For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not…” (II Corinthians 4:15-16). Paul had a strong desire to see the God of all mercy glorified. This would be done through other saints if he would only “faint not” and remain faithful in ministry.

If you’ve grown faint in ministering to others, you’re not alone. But we must remember that we will reap rewards in eternity if we faint not. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58). If you’ve stopped ministering to others, please start again.

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The three years before this writer entered high school, we had so little rain we had virtually no crops to harvest. Banks were repossessing many farms that had been in families for generations. But my father did not give up. He got the best job he could find. He would work all night, come home to sleep for about four hours, then work the farm until time to leave for his night job. I often wondered where he found the strength and resolve, but he just kept plugging away.

When the Apostle Paul wrote his second epistle to the believers at Corinth, he had already experienced many severe trials. But he didn’t give up his ministry for the Lord. He could say, “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (II Corinthians 4:8-9). He told the saints that while “…our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (II Corinthians 4:16). As he spent time each day in God’s Word, he was “changed…even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Corinthians 3:18). It was this time of daily spiritual renewal that kept the Apostle Paul from giving up in discouragement and able to just keep plugging away in the cause of Christ. But there were three things that motivated Paul to be faithful. He wrote, “Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not…” (II Corinthians 4:1-2). He saw the ministry the Lord gave him as a real privilege and responsibility. People were counting on him, and the Lord was counting on him. So he needed to keep plugging away regardless of hardships. Paul also never forgot that God had bestowed His divine mercy upon him. He was a guilty sinner deserving only God’s wrath. But in mercy, the Lord saved him and entrusted him with ministry. Therefore, it was his reasonable service to remain faithful. Third, Paul had cultivated a genuine burden for lost souls (Romans 9:1-3; 10:1), because he realized the gravity of eternal punishment, even if the lost did not. So, he never gave up trying to reach people with the gospel.

Have you grown weary in faithfulness, ministry, or trying to reach the lost? Don’t give up. Allow these three things to motivate you to remain faithful and renew your strength through a daily quiet time.

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My wife’s parents had an interesting dog named Feller. Whenever he did something wrong, he’d lower his head and show his teeth in a grin. If he’d dug a hole in the yard or gotten on the furniture, he’d show that grin. You could read him like a book. People are that way too. We have good Christian friends from San Diego. The wife recently told us she knows when her husband is trying to pull a trick on her because he gets this gleam in his eye. She can read him like a book.

God often uses His children to be read like a book! The Lord told Isaiah: “…Go and loose the sackcloth from off, thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot” (Isaiah 20:2). As an illustration of the kind of impending divine judgment God was going to send upon the Egyptians, God’s man Isaiah walked completely naked for three years. How would you have liked that job? It was difficult and unusual, but it was an effective message. The Lord said to Hosea, “…Go, take…a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land [or the people of Israel] hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord” (Hosea 1:2). Men, how would have liked this job? This, too, was difficult and unusual, but it was likewise an effective tool in sending a message to Israel about their wretched spiritual condition. The Apostle Paul said: “For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men” (I Corinthians 4:9). Paul felt like he lived in a glass house where everyone, including angels, could see every aspect of his life, including his impending death from persecution.

Did you know that God is similarly using every believer today? Paul says: “Ye are our epistle …known and read of all men” (II Corinthians 3:2). We are the only message from God that many people will ever read. Lost souls are reading our lives every day even when we don’t realize it. That makes how we talk, react, treat people, act at work, and live very important. What kind of living epistle are you choosing to be? Make your life a good book for others to read that will draw them to the Author of The Good Book.

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At our grandson’s bowling party, the attendants set up bumpers in the alleys and a stand to roll the balls down toward the pins. We needed to help the children position the stand, carry their bowling ball, and help them roll it down. Whenever their ball knocked down pins, we praised them for doing a good job, and they would squeal with happy excitement. In reality, they had little to do with this accomplishment because they needed assistance from someone bigger, stronger, and more knowledgeable than they were. Still, the children participated, and we were pleased to see them so happy.

Despite the persecution Paul endured, he was rejoicing in spiritual victories. He rejoiced that God used him to lead many to Christ at Corinth (II Corinthians 1:14). He rejoiced in their obedience in exercising needed church discipline (2:3). He rejoiced in the repentance of the one disciplined (2:6-7), and in open doors to proclaim “Christ’s gospel” (2:12). In this context, Paul says: “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge in every place” (2:14). Paul was picturing the Roman Triumph, when a victorious general returned to Rome in a chariot pulled by white horses, parading those he had conquered to demonstrate his glorious victory. Often the general’s son would walk behind his chariot, therein sharing in the glory of victory. During this procession, Romans priests would burn incense that wafted a distinctive odor. For the captives, this fragrance meant slavery and, often, death in the arena. To the general, it meant a victorious homecoming. While Paul “laboured more abundantly” (I Corinthians 15:10) than all the apostles, he always attributed his victories to “the grace of God which was with me.” He acknowledged that his every triumph was due to his strong, omniscient Savior who sovereignly worked through him. As a son of God, Paul followed behind the Savior who allowed Himself to be the sacrifice for our sins and then triumphed over death. Every time Paul proclaimed the gospel to a lost soul, giving them the knowledge of salvation by grace alone, it was like a beautiful fragrance, or “savour,” being offered to the Lord.

We, too, can offer thanks for the triumphs in ministry that are given to us by the hand of God. Today, let’s make the gospel known to a lost soul and allow the fragrance of our ministry to be pleasing to our Savior.

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In a 2015 NBC episode of Chicago PD, a police candidate who had been working at the police station was brutally murdered. Officers in the precinct wanted the city to pay for a gravestone and a plaque to honor this comrade. But a city official refused to release the funds. However, Sargent Hank Voight had an advantage over this official. He brought an incriminating file on this official to his attention and threatened to make it public unless he signed off on this funding. With this powerful leverage, the official quickly changed his mind.

Prior to Paul writing his second epistle to the Corinthians, one of the believers in this assembly had been practicing flagrant and gross immorality. Appropriately, and with Paul’s instructions, many in the church had inflicted this individual with the punishment of withdrawing their fellowship and putting him out of the church (II Corinthians 2:6). Thankfully, their positive peer pressure had reaped a good spiritual harvest. This believer had repented, changed his behavior, and proven his change was genuine. Now Paul writes, urging the entire church to “…forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up in overmuch sorrow” (vs. 7). It would serve no positive purpose to continue to punish this believer who had changed his ways. Instead, they were to follow Paul’s example when he tells them: “…for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ” (vs. 10). They were to confirm their love to this saint by receiving him back into the fellowship of the church (vs. 8). Paul tells them to do so: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (vs. 11). We might normally think of Satan’s devices being lies, spiritual deceit, immorality, addiction, apathy, or blinding the eyes of the lost to the gospel. While all of these are in Satan’s toolbox, one of his most effective tools is to influence Christians to refuse to forgive fellow believers. When this happens, it robs the unforgiving one of peace, joy, spiritual growth, and a proper testimony for Christ. Seldom does it hurt the wrongdoer as much as the one wronged. But the lack of forgiveness by believers can drive a sinning saint into deep sorrow and further into a worldly way of living.

Dear believer, don’t let Satan get an advantage over you by refusing to forgive a fellow blood-bought believer. Instead, “…Be ye kind…forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32).

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