THE HONOR OF SERVING GOD

There are times we as God’s leaders go to the House of God with dread and leave with discouragement.  We may know there are critical people who lie in wait to eviscerate us with the sharp sword of their tongue.  Pastors encounter vexing decisions where all options are painful.  You prepare a meal—a sermon you pour yourself into—and many choose to stay away, gorging themselves on the world’s candy.  Then, there are members you once counted on now counted among those who abandoned your flock for the mega-ministry down the road.  It is hard.  We are human.  God understands.  All that I have said is true, but it is not all the truth.

Psalm 84 reminds us that it is an honor to serve God in any capacity.  If our heart is on God, and worshipping Him, we can “have a spell,” in His house, whether anybody else is moved at all.  We can overcome the dread and discouragement with delight and have a passion for experiencing the presence of God among the people of God!

May God give us this perspective:

How lovely is Your tabernacle, O LORD of hosts! 

My soul longs, yes, even faints

For the courts of the LORD;

My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,

And the swallow a nest for herself,

Where she may lay her young—

 Even Your altars, O LORD of hosts,

My King and my God. 

Blessed are those who dwell in Your house;

They will still be praising You. Selah (Ps.84:1-4)

As a man of God, I am still a man—and so as not to give in to discouragement, I need the strength of the Lord—and it is available!  We may call on Him as these worship leaders:

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You,

Whose heart is set on pilgrimage. 

 As they pass through the Valley of Baca,

They make it a spring;

The rain also covers it with pools. 

They go from strength to strength;

Each one appears before God in Zion. 

O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer;

Give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah 

O God, behold our shield,

And look upon the face of Your anointed.  ‎(Ps.84:5-9)

I am convinced that God gives grace and glory.  He has been faithful to me in nearly four decades of preaching the Gospel.  When I look beyond my circumstances to my God in faith, it makes all the difference in my service.

Make this your conviction:

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand.

I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God

Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

The LORD will give grace and glory;

No good thing will He withhold

From those who walk uprightly.

 O LORD of hosts,

Blessed is the man who trusts in You!  (Ps.84:10-12)

I count it an honor to be employed in the service of my Lord.  Can I get a witness?