If you think Bible heroes had a ball, you are right, but you’ll never win the spelling bee. They had a bawl so often they needed waterproof ink to write the Bible. Remember Jeremiah, the town crier? If he wasn’t filling buckets over his nation’s plight, he was howling over the ministry heaven had landed him with.

If Jeremiah was a real stick-in-the-mud in the bottom of a hole, Paul – going to sleep a stone’s throw from death – had rocks in his head. He made many a hasty exit and some people genuinely missed him. Other throws were more accurate. From the outset he knew persecution would shadow his ministry. Tears and trials were his constant companions.

Isaiah, from the moment of his call, knew his generation would reject his message. Abraham had to endure the agony of almost killing his own flesh and blood. Jeremiah was not allowed a wife, let alone children. Ezekiel was not permitted to mourn the death of his darling. Hosea was condemned to heart-break, commanded by heaven to marry an adulteress.

Like Gideon, many faced such danger that it took all they had not to cower in terror. Isaiah had to strip and wander in public with his body exposed year after year. Many had to suffer not just constant humiliation, but physical torment and a horrible death. Not surprisingly, in the prime of their ministries, suicide seemed attractive to not only Job, but to Moses, Elijah, Jonah and Jeremiah. Hoping for the milk of human kindness, all they got was stiff cheese. Yet each soldiered on, so proving the purity of their motives.

If their resolve mirrors your urge to serve, you’re on target.

(For Scriptures see the link below)

Taken from Waiting for Your Ministry, Chapter 3

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