Does it feel like hard work at the moment? Are you putting more effort in to serving God than ever before, and yet not seeing a lot of fruit? Do you seem to be wading through treacle, with only more treacle on the horizon? Are you praying more passionately than in the past, and yet God seems more quiet? Are you desperate?
It is a feeling or experience that I am finding common around SBC at the moment. So much so that I want to talk about it, so that we understand it and are not discouraged.
Let me give you a solid example. Last night I was at our building for the Youth Small Group and met a couple of our guys, let's call them Bob and Tony. Bob and Tony were there to run a course called 'Money Matters'. It is an awesome course that helps people deal with their money. It is not just for those with debt problems, in fact it is more designed for those who want to be in control of their money that bit more, but who are not in huge debt. Bob and Tony have seen people's lives turned around by coming on the course and know of many more people who would benefit. Last night they diligently turned up ready to run the course, expecting only one person to come. Guess how many people came? No-one. Not even the one person they were expecting came.
Now, before we get all weepy for Bob and Tony, and try to work out their real names so that we can go and console them, we need to remember that this picture is replicated in many different ways across SBC. They are not alone. It is tough, really tough.
So what is going on? I have given a lot of thought and prayer to this. Do we need to pray more? Do we need to pray harder? Do we need to pray differently? Do we need to repent of hidden sin? Do we need to close everything and start from scratch? Do we need to shout louder and guilt trip people into getting involved? Should we give up and do something else? Perhaps you have been tempted towards one of these options, or maybe even all of them, I know I have have. Yet I believe that none of them are God's answer.
The conclusion that I have come to is this: we need to persevere and not do anything different. We need to serve and not worry about success or fruit, but just serve because God asked us to serve. We need to press on, not because we are seeing breakthrough, but because we live in hope of breakthrough. We need to seek his face and his voice, not because we hear Him speak often, but because we love Him even when we don't hear Him.
I believe and have faith for a time to come when we will see fruit and breakthrough, when we will see His Kingdom come in awesome and powerful ways. However, right now I believe that God wants to know if we will serve Him when there are no results. Will we do it simply because he asked us to do it, even in the face of discouragement? If we will, then I believe our hearts will be ready to cope with 'success'. Through this tough time I think He is causing us to examine our motives for serving and praying. Right now I think He is asking us simply to be obedient, and leave the outcome of our efforts in His hands.
So what is our response? First, we keep on keeping on, serving and praying because we love God. We live in hope of breakthrough, but leave it in God's hands. Second, we encourage one another to keep going. This is no easy journey, but together we can help one another see and understand what God is doing.
It's tough at the moment, but hang in there, it is just for a season.
