May 1 2018 – Click here to listen
I was reflecting on the subject of finding enough courage to continue on this morning and decided to re-post a Words for the Day entry that I sent out three years ago. It was a low point in my life and ministry, and I was wondering if I should continue and why God was allowing so much misery to overwhelm me. If you are feeling down today, maybe it will help some. Here is what I wrote:
Yesterday my youngest son sent me an e-mail and told me he will be out at least 14 days due to being diagnosed with pneumonia; this coming on top of my major neck/back surgery, and Teresa’s breast cancer diagnosis and many other problems too numerous to mention. He said that he was beginning to think that the Williamson family may be cursed.
I did not sleep at all last night. I just spent the night thinking.
Ugh!
My thoughts were dark, and I could not shut them off or drift off to sleep. I prayed to God and asked Him to please send me some relief. Instead I was filled with discouragement and I began wondering if I should even continue in the ministry when and if my family’s health got restored.
I recognized that voice who was whispering those thoughts in my ear. Who comes to discourage me at my lowest points? Satan! I commanded him in the name of Jesus to get away from me.
Then the Apostle Paul came to mind and I remembered how he had suffered prior to and throughout his ministry with beatings, floggings, being stoned, shipwrecks, hated by his former friends, imprisonment, and even being bitten by a poisonous snake; and then there was his horrible death. I thought of Martin Luther and how he was excommunicated and sought after as a heretic to be burned at the stake and the 100,000 peasants that died in their fight to read a Bible translated by Luther into the ordinary man’s language, so they didn’t have to rely on the Pope reading it in Latin and then telling them what to believe.
These courageous people who loved God so much had to suffer disproportionately.
Why do the men and women of God have to suffer?
Just then I experienced some pain that felt like fire burning in my neck and into my back right where I just had my operation. I thought about fire and the Bible’s mention of refining gold. It is refined by a fire that burns intently until the dross is removed and it is finally pure. I wondered if the trials requiring purification are a necessary step to achieving things for the Lord that can change the world. Must we experience some pain in order to greatly glorify the Lord’s name?
As I reviewed the Bible in my mind, many biblical figures were visualized including King David being pursued and hiding in caves to save his life and reading his sorrowful cries, prayers, and pleas in his many Psalms that are so powerfully written. I thought of Job, Joseph, and the disciples and their trials while spreading the Gospel and it became evident that there is a price to follow Jesus.
Right then I thought of Jesus and His crucifixion. My suffering is nothing in comparison and I should not be discouraged. I knew right then that I must keep my thoughts and eyes on Jesus ALWAYS and follow Him until I take my very last breath and then I will rest. Who came to encourage me at one of my lowest points and inspired me to have courage?
The Holy Spirit! Selah . . .
The Prussian king Frederick the Great was widely known as an agnostic. By contrast, General Von Zealand, one of his most trusted officers, was a devout Christian. Thus it was, that during a festive gathering the king began making crude jokes about Christ until everyone was rocking with laughter – all but Von Zealand that is. Finally, he arose and addressed the king:
“Sire, you know I have not feared death. I have fought and won 38 battles for you. I am an old man; I shall soon have to go into the presence of One greater than you, the mighty God who saved me from my sin, the Lord Jesus Christ whom you are blaspheming. I salute you, sire, as an old man who loves his Savior, on the edge of eternity.”
The place went silent, and with a trembling voice the king replied, “General Von Zealand – I beg your pardon! I beg your pardon!”
And with that the party quietly ended.
It took courage for General Von Zealand to stand and proclaim his allegiance to the Savior in circumstances like that, but of course, here was a man who was no stranger to courage. One of the required character qualities in any leader is courage. “Courage of the highest order is demanded of a spiritual leader – always moral courage and frequently physical courage as well.” But courage is not only a necessary quality in a leader, it is a quality needed in every Christian’s life if he or she is going to be able to boldly follow and persist in the will of God. Ultimately it becomes a mark of maturity where it is consistently evident. Oftentimes pursuing the will of God calls on the Christian to take a stand that may put him or her at risk, at least emotionally if not physically or financially or socially or politically. (FROM THE SERIES: MARKS OF MATURITY: BIBLICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHRISTIAN LEADER)
All of the examples in this post were simply ordinary men like you and I who feared and felt pain and heartache just like us. How did they acquire courage to stand up for the Lord? They asked the Lord to give them courage and when Satan came knocking they sent him scurrying away assisted by the power of the Holy Spirit and the precious name of our Savior Jesus Christ!
Do you have the courage to stand up for Jesus even when life is spiraling down? Ask for it on bended knees and you will receive!
John 12:27
“Now my soul is greatly distressed. And what should I say? ‘Father, deliver me from this hour’? No, but for this very reason I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.”