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Something I’ve been continually learning and re-learning in my current ministry role is how I need the gospel for emotional buoyancy amidst the ups and down of ministry. My mood can sometimes be more determined by how meetings and programs are going than by Christ and his unending, always satisfying love. When ministry goes well, I feel great. When it goes poorly or even just okay, I can feel unsettled and sometimes discouraged. But one day several months back it just hit me that this is totally the fruit of justification by works – looking to my performance to feel okay about life and about myself. To the extent that the gospel becomes the central boast in my life, I have an emotional center that does not bob about with circumstances. I am liberated from constantly measuring how I am performing to simply work hard and then rest in the promises and provision of God, as I do for my salvation.

I am grateful that ministry is ultimately not up to how I perform, but to Jesus’ power, call, wisdom, and love.  Only when I realize that my labors aren’t the answer can I labor as I ought.  Only when Jesus is more important to me than ministry can I do ministry as I ought – with the freedom and abandonment of the One who is my example as well as my Savior.

Guest post by Gavin Ortlund

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