So I ended my previous post about walking with Christ with these words:
This life can be (and will be) a struggle, but God will be with you as you walk a difficult path due to difficult people. Keep pressing on with Him. Working with Him and walking with Him is worth it!
Though Jeremiah had a God-given purpose and was living in the very center of God’s will, he became frustrated because people would not listen to him and had turned against him. He was growing tired of the struggle of living for God while seemingly getting very little in return.
You might also find yourself in that place at some times in life. You may be thinking, “That’s where I am right now.” Though Jeremiah did complain to God about the situation, he followed up his complaint with some powerful words which tell us that even though he was frustrated, he did think that serving God was more important than his own discomfort. He was frustrated, but he knew that he wanted to serve God more than he wanted to be popular and more than he wanted to have an easy life. He said:
But if I say I’ll never mention the LORD or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! Indeed, I cannot do it!
I have heard the many rumors about me…. Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip….
But the LORD stands beside me like a great warrior! Jeremiah 20:9-11
Jeremiah understood this truth:
Walking with Christ is worth it, even if no one else walks beside us.
Walking with Christ is worth it, because doing so will change our lives and it also has the power to change someone else’s life.
Let me end with an example from the Gulf Coast after Katrina had come through. One of my fellow church members was working with an organization to provide grants to people who needed assistance. One man came in and during his interview, he shared this with my friend:
“My entire life, I have been so bad to God. But ever since Katrina, He has been so good to me. Volunteers are rebuilding my house, God has provided for my needs through church people from other parts of our country, and I have a restored relationship with God. All of the loss and devastation that happened to me through Katrina was worth it for me to have a right relationship with God.”
Isn’t that what we want to hear someone say as a result of our involvement in their lives? That someone who was hurting is now healing? That someone who was Lost is now Found? And that it is due to them watching how you live your life as a ministry to them?
It is true that God has called you to a difficult task – to live for Him and be His hands and feet in the midst of difficult people (sinful people, of which you also are one), but He has a plan for using you to make a difference in the peoples’ lives that He has placed around you.
Let us be encouraged by what Jeremiah discovered, that though God has called us into a struggle of ministering to difficult people in difficult places, we are loved by Him and He is our great warrior, our mighty champion.
Let us not worry so much about how God might bless our lives, but let us consider how we might use our lives to bless the Lord, our great champion.