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!
