One’s heavenly citizenship is far more important than the experience of the greatest of miracles on earth. Do you see how this might help the joyful or the discouraged minister of the gospel? Do you see how this might help the passionate church volunteer in seasons of success and failure? It can.

Are you a worker in your church? Are you a volunteer? Are you a pastor? Are you one of those who gives his or her all for the sake of the gospel and the love of the Lord and his people?

If you are one who sees the importance of the glory of God in his church, I would guess that you are also one who knows what it feels like to experience some pretty sweet joys and some pretty significant pains. Ministry can be great. Ministry can be hard. Being a pastor can be so very sweet. Being a pastor can be so very discouraging.

Reading Luke 10, I find a couple of thoughts that I believe will help those of us who serve to deal with the joy and the despair of ministry. These words remind us not to fly too high when we experience success. They also help us not to crash and burn when things are not as we want them to be.

As Jesus instructed 72 followers before sending them out on mission, the Lord told them how to react when a town either received them and their message or rejected them and the message.

Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. ⁹ Heal the sick in it and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” ¹⁰ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ¹¹ “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.”
Luke 10:8-11

What do you notice about those instructions? What changes and what does not? Whether there is joy or sadness, celebration or condemnation, one message remains the same—the kingdom of God has come near. Whether the people in a town love this fact or hate it, the kingdom of God is still the kingdom of God.

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