Pastors and Teachers: Don't Give Up

For those in ministry, there will be times when you want to give up. The church is not growing, people are leaving, and it seems no one is listening to the Word being proclaimed. It does not matter if you are preaching behind a pulpit, teaching a Sunday School class or leading a small group, there will be times you feel like throwing in the towel.

Paul told the Galatian church, "...let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary" (Galatians 6:9). In your effort to preach and teach the Word of God, do not give up even when you do not see immediate fruit.

J.C. Ryle wrote:

We are not to give up teaching because we see no good done. We are not to relax our exertions because we see no fruit of our toil. We are to work on steadily, keeping before us the great principle that duty is ours and results are God’s.

When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, there was a division over which leader they were following:

For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men? What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building (1 Corinthians 3:4-9).

God is the One who causes the growth. The results are His and His alone. We give glory to God when one comes to repentance, not us. We are "ambassadors for Christ, as God is pleading through us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). We represent Him, not ourselves.

Pastors and teachers do not give up the proclamation of the Word of God. We might see the result for a long time or not in this life. God is the One who causes all things to happen even the results of our teaching and preaching.