READING: Genesis 49-50, Galatians 4
Ministry can get tough, especially when the people you lead don’t always listen to your guidance. You give all your efforts toward training them, but they don’t pay much attention—or, they blatantly reject what you teach. It’s easy then to just “write off” those folks and choose not to minister to them anymore.
Paul, on the other hand, shows us a different approach in today’s New Testament reading. Sure, he was deeply frustrated with the Galatians for seeming to reject his message and returning to the bondage of the Law. He was even worried that his work among them had been in vain. At the same time, though, he used phrases that reflected his ongoing concern and love for the Galatians. Indeed, he still called them “brothers and sisters” (Gal 4:12, 4:28), and he spoke of them as a mother would her children: “My children, I am again suffering labor pains for you until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19). Paul was experiencing the pangs of a pastor who waited patiently to see spiritual growth in his congregation, but the people were still his “children.”
That’s part of what pastoring is all about: loving the brothers and sisters as children, then agonizing on their behalf when they don’t always follow.
PRAYER: “Lord, keep me from bondages. Help me to live in such a way that I don’t burden my pastor.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Weekend is review and catch-up time
