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Today I spoke at the GenR8 Ministries Annual Conference. “GenR8 helps NSW Scripture Teachers, Chaplains and Scripture Boards strengthen their ministry in NSW schools so that many more young lives will be transformed through the Lord Jesus Christ.”
It was a privilege to hang out with this great group of people. They are doing such a valuable work in NSW government schools, and there’s exciting plans in the pipelines. I kicked off the day speaking on 2 Corinthians 4 – Do Not Lose Heart.
We’ve seen that it’s easy to lose heart in the Christian life and in Christian ministry. We’ve also seen how 2 Corinthians 4 can encourage us to not lose heart. What does all this mean?
It means we keep in mind the big picture. We need to keep seeing the forest from the trees. When we are ready to give up, we need to fix our eyes on eternity.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18)
I promised 5 more posts. I’ll give you 2. There are lots of reasons why it’s easy to lose heart in the Christian life and in Christian ministry. But don’t. Don’t lose heart.
Here are 5 things we can know from 2 Corinthians 4, that will help us to not lose heart:
It’s pretty easy to lose heart in the Christian life and in Christian ministry. I’m continually saddened by the number of people I personally know who have given up on the Christian life. To a lesser extent, it’s devastating when Christian ministers lose heart and give up their ministry.
2 Corinthians has a lot to say about reasons for not losing heart. In it we meet the Apostle Paul who goes through much hardship, yet has good reason to persevere in his Christian life and ministry. In 4:1 and 4:16 Paul says “therefore we do not lose heart”, and in between those two verses there are at least 5 reasons to not lose heart. Knowing these things will enable you to not lose heart – whether you are a young Christian or an old-timer. Want to know more? Keep an eye out on the next 5 posts, in the meantime have a read of 2 Corinthians 4:1-18: