PASTORAL MINISTRY-SUFFERING
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.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
It is our duty and our privilege to exhaust our lives
for Jesus. 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.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
[A pastor’s] work,
when earnestly undertaken, lays us open to attacks in the direction of
depression. Who can bear the weight
of souls without sometimes sinking to the dust? Passionate longings after men's
conversion, if not fully satisfied (and when are they?), consume the soul with
anxiety and disappointment. To see the hopeful turn aside, the godly grow cold,
professors abusing their privileges, and sinners waxing more
bold in sin – are not these sights enough to crush us to the earth? 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?
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
A minister fully equipped for his work, will
usually be a spirit by himself, above, beyond, and apart from others. The most
loving of his people cannot enter into his peculiar thoughts, cares, and
temptations. In the ranks, men walk shoulder to shoulder, with many comrades,
but as the officer rises in rank, men of his standing are fewer in number.
There are many soldiers, few captains, fewer colonels, but only one
commander-in-chief. So, in our churches, the man whom the Lord raises as a
leader becomes, in the same degree in which he is…a solitary man… 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.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
To sit long in one posture, poring over a book,
or driving a quill, is in itself a taxing of nature; but add to this a
badly-ventilated chamber, a body which has long been without muscular exercise,
and a heart burdened with many cares, and we have all the elements for
preparing a seething cauldron of despair, especially in the dim months of fog.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
This depression comes over me whenever the Lord
is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry; the cloud is black before it
breaks, and overshadows before it yields its deluge of mercy. Depression has
now become to me as a prophet in rough clothing, a John the Baptist, heralding
the nearer coming of my Lord's richer benison. So have far better men found it.
The scouring of the vessel has fitted it for the Master's use. Immersion in
suffering has preceded the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Fasting gives an appetite
for the banquet. The Lord is revealed in the backside of the desert, while his
servant keepeth the sheep and waits in solitary awe.
The wilderness is the way to Canaan. The low valley leads to the towering
mountain. Defeat prepares for victory.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
The trials
of a true minister are not few, and such as are caused by ungrateful professors
are harder to bear than the coarsest attacks of avowed enemies. Let no man who looks for ease of mind and seeks the quietude of life
enter the ministry; if he does so he will flee from it in disgust.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
My witness is, that
those who are honoured of their Lord in public, have
usually to endure a secret chastening, or to carry a peculiar cross, lest by
any means they exalt themselves, and fall into the snare of the devil.
C.H. Spurgeon
The
Minister’s Fainting Fits, Lectures to My Students, Lecture XI, 1856.
Love bears up
under the heavy load of life’s problems and sufferings. It holds steadfast and
remains strong despite opposition, deprivation, and hard work. Love is courageous.
It can carry enormous weight; thus loving leaders have an amazing ability to
endure all sorts of suffering and frustration for the sake of others and the
gospel (1 Cor. 9:12). This is a trait of all good shepherds (Gen. 31:38-40).
They persevere and do not give up easily or fall apart under pressure.
Alexander Strauch
Leading With Love, Lewis and Roth, 2006, p. 82, Used by
Permission.
The
minister’s work debilitates nature; like the candle, he wastes while he shines.
William Gurnall
A Puritan Golden Treasury,
compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 193.
To be a true
minister to men is always to accept new happiness and new distress. The man who
gives himself to other men can never be a wholly sad man; but no more can he be
a man of unclouded gladness. To him shall come with every deeper consecration a
before untasted joy, but in the same cup shall be
mixed a sorrow that it was beyond his power to feel before.
The Influence of Jesus, H.R. Allenson, 1875, p. 191.
We must feel
toward our people as a father toward his children; yea, the most
tender love of a mother must not surpass ours. We must even travail in
birth, till Christ be formed in them. They should see
that we care for no outward thing, neither liberty, nor honor, nor life, in
comparison to their salvation.
Richard Baxter
Take heed to yourselves, because the tempter will more
ply you with his temptations than other men. If you will be the leaders against
the prince of darkness, he will spare you no further than God restraints him.
He bears the greatest malice to those that are engaged to do him the greatest
mischief. As he hates Christ more than any of us, because He is the General of
the field, the Captain of our salvation, and does more than all the world
besides against his kingdom; so does he hate the leaders under Him, more than
the common soldiers: he knows what a rout he may make among them, if the
leaders fall before their eyes.
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 1, Section 2.
Burned and wasted we must be; and is it not fitter it
should be in lighting men to heaven, and in working for God, than in living to
the flesh? How little difference is there between the pleasure of a long and of
a short life, when they are both at an end! What comfort will it be to you at
death, that you lengthened your life by shortening your work? He that worketh much, liveth
much. Our life is to be esteemed according to the ends and works of it,
and not according to the mere duration... Will it not comfort us more at death,
to review a short time faithfully spent, than a long life spent unfaithfully?
Richard Baxter
The Reformed Pastor, Chapter 3, Part 2.
I can say as
to myself, that I have been assailed on all sides, and have scarcely been able
to enjoy repose for a single moment, but have always had to sustain some
conflict either from enemies without or within the church.
John Calvin
Preface to the Commentary on the Psalms.
Therefore, I
bind these lies and slanderous accusations to my person as an ornament; it
belongs to my Christian profession to be vilified, slandered, reproached and
reviled, and since all this is nothing but that, as God and my conscience
testify, I rejoice in being reproached for Christ's sake.
John Bunyan
Grace Abounding, Evangelical Press, 2000, p.
143.
When God
wants to drill a man
And thrill a man
And skill a man,
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part;
When He
yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!
How He
ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him,
And with mighty blows converts him
Into trial
shapes of clay which
Only God understands;
While his tortured heart is crying
And he lifts beseeching hands!
How He bends
but never breaks
When his good He undertakes;
How He uses whom He chooses,
And which every purpose fuses him;
By every act induces him
To try His splendor out –
God knows what He's about.
Author
Unknown