The Secret of Perseverance in Our Service to God

(Overcomer Wu)

“And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more....” --Philippians 1:9a

The greatest servants of Christ are not immuned to fatique, burnout, stressed-out, or overwhelmed with duty, responsibilities, and even depression. Oftentimes, these can characterize some of the most effective servants of God. For instance, we all know of the well-renowned and effective Bible character like Elijah the prophet who was greatly used by God. Yet we are told that he was faced with so much frustrations and stressed over the situation of God's people that he considered quitting out of serving God. At one point in His life, he was so depressed over his own perceived inadequacies and being hunted down by Jezebel that he even wanted to just drop dead and die.

If you choose to serve God, you will most likely face with emotions like these at some point in your life. It’s a danger that comes with the territory. In whatever capacity you are serving or wherever you are serving, there will come a time when you are overwhelmed with discouragement and weariness in our serving the Lord. At the very juncture, Satan will whisper to you something like: “throw in the towel and quit. Forget about it and let others take care of the responsibilities. You're sick, torn, weary, and worn. There are plenty of others who can take your place. You've done your share of duty. Let others take care of it.” This is one of the opportune times when the enemy will capitalize on our weariness in our spiritual warfare and fill us with such lies. The apostle Paul warns, “lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2 Cor 2:11). Therefore, we should definitely not be ignorant that this is one of the enemy’s devices.

I believe though, that whenever we get to this state of discouragement and weariness, it is either we have lost sight of the Lord Himself, for Whom we lovingly and freely render our service. Thus, the Lord Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28). Another reason why we have come to this state on the verge of giving-up our service to the Lord is perhaps we have not spent sufficient time with the Lord in His Word in recharging our spiritual battery – in a manner of speaking. For this reason, I believe the most crucial foundation for our lifelong service to the Lord is firstly ti spend time in cultivating our love for Him – this is the first and foremost command given to us by the Lord Himself (Mk 12:30).

Yet this desire and love for the Lord does not just happen – like love-at-first-sight since we cannot see the Lord with our physical eyes after-all – rather, it must be cultivated. Without this love for the Lord, everything else becomes mechanics…merely "how-to" courses in the spiritual life. Hence, 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3 tells us that the love of Christ and for Christ is the indispensable element in all our service to Him: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”

How do we practically cultivate our love for the Lord? Well, it's just like how we cultivate our love for any person... you need to spend quality time with that person. To cultivate this love, King David also shared with us in Psalm 63 one of the greatest desires and secrets in his life: It is to set aside time in fellowship with the Lord in prayer. It is through these times set aside habitually for this very purpose that our love for God will grow and our walk with Him become increasingly intimate: "O God, You are my God, earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise You. On my bed I remember You; I think of You through the watches of the night. Because You are my help, I sing in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me” (Psa 63:1-8). We need to keep in mind that this does not happen automatically. Like any habits, even good habits must be formed through a determined exercise of our will to regularly set aside a time when we can spend this time in prayer and fellowship with the Lord in His Word. For this reason, Paul exhorted Timothy in his first epistles to Timothy chapter 4:7: "…train yourself to be godly.” The phrase train yourself definitely connotes that it is not a spontaneous act, but an exercise on our part is required.

In short, the priority the Lord Jesus gives us for life is simply to spend time with Him by sitting at His feet to listen to His Words. The wonderful story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42 demonstrates this. As Martha complained about Mary’s lack of help in preparing a meal, Jesus’ response to her was that Mary had chosen the one thing that was needed…sitting at His feet….enjoying His Presence and listening to His Words. We of course listen to the Lord's speaking today by spending time in His Word to allow Him to speak to us through His already written Words through His Spirit. This is how we can practically recharge our spiritual battery to prevent a faith power-outage or a faith break-down. At the same time, our love for Him will grow sweeter as the years go by when we have these dedicated times spent with Him to mature our love for Him.