Format: APA
Have you felt ever pressured to quit, and did it make you more dependent on God to press on?
Respond to the devotional with scriptural references (will be provided)
Response should reference Organizational Change.
Devotional Pressing On
Introduction
Being a Christian involves making sacrifices which may prove to be hard and painful with all the challenges and temptations we keep on facing. However, Jesus Christ came into this world in human form and managed to uphold all the standards of upright living despite facing the same temptations we go through. In this article, we are going to discuss the pressure to quit people face while serving the Lord, and if it brought them closer to God. Information will be obtained from the scripture and various articles. As a result, we will be able to come up with ways of strengthening each other’s faith.
People have different ways of handling challenges when they are faced with one. Some can withstand high pressure while others backslide when faced with the slightest problem. We are going to look at different Christian who have gone through trial and how they coped with it. From the Bible, Paul is seen as a perfect example of an individual who kept his passion and faith while undertaking his mission of preaching God’s word. According to Reed (2011), Paul’s challenges can be classified into the internal conflicts, the external condemnation, and the demanding life of Christian ministry.
Internal conflicts come about as a result of the hardship people face will working in God’s ministry. Hardship is caused by things such as ill health, unemployment, apostasy, and bereavement. At the beginning of Paul’s ministry, Demas and others left him when he was undergoing trial which prompted him to write to Timothy telling him about the difficulties he was facing. Paul put his trust in God believing that the Lord will rescue him from all the attacks and glorified God in all things (2 Timothy 4:9-11, 16-18 New International Version). Consequently, he was able to overcome his tough times.
Believers should expect oppression from other people when they decide to lift Christ’s mantle. While preaching in Philippi, Paul and Silas were physically assaulted and imprisoned. Rather than spending their time in jail groaning, they kept on singing and praying while behind bars. Reed (2011), states that in Britain those in Professional sport find it hard to attend church services due to their schedule. Most companies have also adopted Saturday as a working day denying the Seventh Day Adventist a chance to congregate for prayers. Hence this has shown that despite going through such challenges, people should stand firm for what they believe.
The life of being a pastor and an evangelist can be tiresome involving sleepless nights and hard work to the point of exhaustion. According to Reed (2011), Paul repaired leather goods during the morning and in the afternoon and spent the other part of his day teaching members of his church. In our current society, pastors and evangelist spend a lot of time administering to the congregation at the expense of spending time with their families.
To avoid backsliding, Christians should hold one another’s hand by praying, visiting, and comforting each other during hard times. According to Laurie (2012), not portraying the standards of a Christian doesn’t make you a hypocrite but a human being. When one falls, they should pick themselves up and continue without minding what other people may say.
Conclusion
From the article, we have seen that serving God involves making sacrifices sometimes at the expense of our security. Christians have a duty of spreading God’s word to all parts of the world and should earnestly pray to Him for strength.
References
Laurie, G. (2012, May 22). Daily Devotion. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from harvest: https://www.harvest.org/devotions-and-blogs/daily-devotions/2012-05-22
Reed, J. (2011). 2 Corinthians6v3to13: PAUL’S HARDSHIP. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from jrtalks: www.jrtalks.com/2Corinth/2cor6v3to13.html
