This post is inspired by the sermon I heard yesterday morning.
“To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally.”
– Colossians 1:29 & 2:1
In these verses, Paul is saying that the work God is having him do is hard. Service and ministry is hard. Our pastor continued to share about how he feels the pressure and difficulty of sharing the gospel. Every Sunday after church the pastor goes home and questions whether he said the right thing during the sermon. He never feels like he shared the Lord’s message as well and completely as it should have been. He struggled with this for a long time, thinking that someday he will become good enough at this job that it will no longer be a struggle. When this time never came he realized something entirely different… we will always be insufficient. We will never be able to serve enough, or tell the gospel perfectly how it should be, and we will never be able to understand all things.
“Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”
– 2 Corinthians 11:28-29
In Corinthians, Paul feels suffering because he wants to help everyone, but he can’t. We will never be able to help everyone. It is this feeling of being insufficient that Christians must take with them always.
I was always told again and again in some form, “In God’s eyes, you are enough.” I never really questioned it up until recently, but I started to realize I am not enough. I don’t have the capabilities that I would like to serve God and others. Therefore, I was so relieved to hear the pastor say that he feels insufficient, and that we will always be insufficient. It is this terrible feeling that we must bear.
That being said, our suffering is necessary. Our suffering is needed in order to show how Jesus suffered, and it is through our suffering that others can truly understand the Gospel.
The Branches 