Misery Is….
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesDo you know what misery is regarding the Lord’s work? :
1) Misery is going to welcome a new “Christian” family in town to the services, and hearing them say, “Yes, we’re gonna have to get down there and see you all sometime.”
2) Misery is hearing that brother or sister X had been in the hospital for five days without telling a soul he or she was sick; now he or she is at home and mad at everybody who didn’t come to visit.
3) Misery is doing the best you can and having a critic say, “You are not doing your best.”
4) Misery is talking to someone with all the love you have about doing the Lord’s Will in their life and living and hearing them say, “I am going to serve the Lord better as soon as I get my life straightened out.”
5) Misery is doing all you can to build up, encourage and help the church grow and progress, and then hear someone say, “It won’t do any good.”
6) Misery is preaching the Gospel with all the love and power you have and hear someone say, “Preacher, you should have preached it this or that way.”
Brethren, as we do the work of the Lord, there will always be those individuals who can (and will) cause us misery. Let us not grow despondent, but let us experience the great “joy” that the Apostle Paul experienced.
Listen to his words in Philippians 4:3-4:
“And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! “
We can “rejoice in the Lord” because we are doing the Lord’s will (Matthew 7:21).