Saturday, February 22, 2014

Spiritual Discouragement


Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

One of the most encouraging questions I hear from so many of you is, “Pastor, how can we be praying for you?”  Or “Pastor, we know you have been experiencing some health struggles the past two or three years would you like to try this or that and see if it brings you some relief?”  Your prayer support and genuine concern means far more to me and my family then you probably realize (1 Thessalonians 5:12-14).  By God’s design all of us are connected to one another as the body of Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 12:26-27; And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.
In the LORD’s good providence I recently came across a mp3 recording of Charles Haddon Spurgeon's “The Minister’s Fainting Fits.”  This lesson could be subtitled, Spiritual Discouragement.  Why God Takes His Servants Through Dark Trials and Lonely Valleys?  (Romans 8:28-30).    
Charles Spurgeon, (the “Prince of Preachers”) was a faithful Baptist minister who experienced himself much spiritual discouragement and physical suffering during his unusually fruitful ministry (see Iain H Murray’s excellent biography, The Forgotten Spurgeon or Steve Lawson’s, The Gospel Focus of Charles Spurgeon).  This particular lesson by Pastor Spurgeon is masterfully encouraging, insightful, and graciously convicting all at the same time.  I believe this teaching helps answer the all-important question, “Pastor, how we can be praying for you?”  God knows how much I need your prayers! (Ephesians 6:19-20)  This lesson also provides the listener with a wonderful perspective on the highs and lows of local church ministry.  Spiritual discouragement in the line of Christian duty is something every faithful servant of Christ experiences.  As such I hope and pray that this lesson will edify your soul and lift your spirits up as much as it has done so with me over the past few weeks.
  
LESSON NOTES

I.  Specific consideration:  Why do the Lord’s shepherds go through seasons of spiritual discouragement?  General consideration: Why do all of God’s people experience so many hardships during the Christian pilgrimage?  (Job 5:7; Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 3:12, 1 Peter 3-4)

Why it is that the children of light sometimes walk in the thick darkness; why the heralds of the daybreak find themselves at times in tenfold night?”



Pastors often struggle with spiritual discouragement

and other related maladies for various reasons:


1. They are men and subject to all human frailties.  (Job 5:7)

….“Good men are promised tribulation in this world, and ministers may expect a larger share than others, that they may learn sympathy with the Lord's suffering people, and so may be fitting shepherds of an ailing flock.”  (2 Corinthians 1:3-11; 2 Timothy 3:12; 4:5)

…..“Men, and men subject to human passions, the all-wise God has chosen to be his vessels of grace; hence these tears, hence these perplexities and castings down.”
2. All flesh struggles with physical weaknesses to one degree or another.                                  (John 16:33; Ecclesiastes 11-12)
“Certain bodily maladies, especially those connected with the digestive organs…are at times fruitful fountains of despondency; and, let a man strive as he may against their influence, there will be hours and circumstances in which they will for awhile overcome him. As to mental maladies, is any man altogether sane? Are we not all a little off the balance?” (1 Tim. 5:23)
… “We have the treasure of the gospel in earthen vessels, and if there be a flaw in the vessel here and there, let none wonder.” (2 Corinthians 4:7)
3. The work of the ministry, when earnestly undertaken, lays us open to attacks in the direction of depression and exhaustion.   (Eccl. 12:2; 1 Cor. 15:10; Col. 1:29; 2 Tim. 2:15)
… “The kingdom comes not as we would, the reverend name is not hallowed as we desire, and for this we must weep. How can we be otherwise than sorrowful, while men believe not our report, and the divine arm is not revealed? All mental work tends to weary and to depress, for much study is a weariness of the flesh; but ours is more than mental work—it is heart work, the labor of our inmost soul. How often, on Lord's-day evenings, do we feel as if life were completely washed out of us! After pouring out our souls over our congregations, we feel like empty earthen pitchers which a child might break.”
… “We are not to be living specimens of men in fine preservation, but living sacrifices, whose lot is to be consumed; we are to spend and to be spent, not to lay ourselves up in lavender, and nurse our flesh. Such soul-travail as that of a faithful minister will bring on occasional seasons of exhaustion, when heart and flesh will fail. Moses' hands grew heavy in intercession, and Paul cried out, "Who is sufficient for these things?" Even John the Baptist is thought to have had his fainting fits, and the apostles were once amazed, and were afraid.”  (Phil 1:21; Rom. 12:1-3)
4. The minister tends to be somewhat isolated from his brethren.
… “The most loving of his people cannot enter into his peculiar thoughts, cares, and temptations.”

…“No one knows, but he who has endured it, the solitude of a soul which has outstripped its fellows in zeal for the Lord of hosts: it dares not reveal itself, lest men count it mad; it cannot conceal itself, for a fire burns within its bones: only before the Lord does it find rest.”
5. Christian ministry is often quite sedentary in nature.
Forsake not the Lord’s good creation!