Global Youth Ministry Network - Asia

Serve with hope—In our Christian service, in our ministry, there will be low points as well as high. There will be times that we will lack the passion, go beyond our limits or serve outside our area of gifting. Even the great missionary Paul felt this way. He writes (in 2 Cor. 1:8-9):

“For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.  Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.”

It would be tempting when we reach our valleys to stop and dwell on our despair but Paul does not stop there, he writes on:

“…But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

Like Paul, in your low moments, realize that the ministry of our service does not depend on ourselves but upon God. And it is on his power that we should rely.

Consider the illustration of a sailboat. A sailboat can do nothing without the wind to lift its sail. Sometimes the wind comes and speedily moves the boat but there are times when the boat stays still on the water because there is no wind. The sailor’s “ministry” at those times is simply to raise the sails despite there being no wind. For he knows, sooner or later the wind will come. In the times when you are down, continue to serve—with hope. For in his perfect time, God will come.

As you reflect on all these, I hope that you will begin to see servanthood in a different light from how the world looks at being a servant. May you see the joy in it, the honor in it and may you be like the Lord:

“Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant…”