What Do You Do When You Are Tired Of Serving And People Reject You?
Good Morning Friends,
The nature of being kind is always at risk of becoming cynical. It is here that I have come to realize that it is only true faith that perseveres through the pain of our individual Good Fridays. Today’s lectionary selection prompts the question. So, What Do You Do When You Are Tired Of Serving And People Reject You?
Scripture: For I hear many whispering: “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. “Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.” But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.
Jeremiah 20:10-13 (NRSV)
The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these are you going to stone me?” The Jews answered, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ —and the scripture cannot be annulled— can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried to arrest him again, but he escaped from their hands. He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing earlier, and he remained there. Many came to him, and they were saying, “John performed no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true.” And many believed in him there.
John 10:31-42 (NRSV)
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Philippians 3:7-12 (NRSV)
For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better;
Philippians 1:21-23 (NRSV)
Message: When resentment becomes the primary emotion that we are feeling toward God and others, we are in trouble. So, if you are complaining realize that the Lord may respond by giving you some rest on the bench or may give you sympathetic people to comfort you, but may also give you a kick in the pants so you might gain a new understanding of why resentment is the wrong approach. Thankfully we have Holy Week to help sooth our sin sick souls with the experience of what it means to have a higher emotional and spiritual IQ. This week we are on a learning experience of our emotions, with individual Bible stories, one after the other, that address our emotional flaws. And yes all these flaws need to die so we might be resurrected in the Spirit of God. Division, denial, lust, anger, greedy, pride…the list goes on and on of those things that rob us of life. And it is all spilled out in a cathartic experience on the Cross as Jesus dies between two bandits. Today is Good Friday. And so we look at a passage where Jeremiah got tired of being rejected and the example of Jesus who pushed through the experience realizing that there was something beyond the lies of the little deaths we experience. Paul sums it up nicely. Dying with Christ is indeed gain.
Pray Christ complete the work begun in us. Pray we realize that the Christian journey is not necessarily going to be victory after victory, joy after joy. Pray we realize that the challenges and difficulties that we struggle with can be used by God for a purpose if we persevere. Pray on this Good Friday that we give up our resentments and continue serving. Pray Christ remember us when he comes into His Kingdom. Pray we realize we have an assignment as John at the Cross to serve. Pray we learn to sing a new song.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 