Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  2024  Day 99

April 8;       2 Corinthians 6:4;        155/260;        ‘Ministers of God’

2 Corinthians 6:4  But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses,

In verses 3-10 of this chapter, Paul describes the ministry, the good and the challenging.  Doing the work of the ministry, and every Christian is responsible to the Lord for the work of the ministry, has incredible joys and times of sorrow and pain as well.  Our work for the Lord is the most important work that there could ever be, since eternity is involved.  The Lord Jesus defeated the devil, but he and demonic forces are still around and will do whatever they can to hinder the work of believers when we are zealous to do the Lord’s work.  The bad news is the devil will try to hinder and discourage us.  The good news is that we do not have to let him.  Here are a couple of things Paul learned and teaches us about the ministry.  In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul tells us that because of the great revelation given him by the Lord, a demon was assigned to Paul to do everything he could to impede the progress of Paul’s ministry.  Three times Paul cried out to the Lord for help and the Lord’s reply was that His grace was sufficient for Paul.  The Lord would see to it that in spite of the harassment of the demon, Paul’s ministry would still flourish.  In Philippians 4:11 Paul makes an incredibly powerful comment, “in any circumstance I have learned to be content.” Paul had good times and he surely had some very tough times, but his close relationship with Jesus allowed him to remain at peace regardless of what he faced.  When  it was time ‘to go home,’ he was content knowing he had fought a good fight and finished his race.