Six Comforts for Pastors

If we base our identity on how well our ministries are going from an earthly perspective, we will be in trouble. Every pastor’s ministry will have good times and bad times. Basing our identity on how well things seem to be going is like putting our hope in a volatile stock. We will end up elated some of the time and despondent the rest.

As pastors, we need to put our confidence in something more secure than how well things seem to be going.

Here are six comforts for pastors that will last and sustain us, no matter how well or poorly our ministry seems to be going.

God works through his word.

As pastors, one of our primary responsibilities is to devote ourselves to the ministry of the word. Here is our confident hope: God works through that word.

The apostle Paul knew that he could be locked in a jail cell, but the word could never be locked up (2 Timothy 2:9). God is at work even when the preacher isn’t. Darrell Johnson reminds us that when God speaks, something always happens. Always. Sometimes God hardens and sometimes God enlivens through his word, but it’s always doing something.

Therefore, as pastors, as we minister God’s word, we can know that God is always working as we faithfully proclaim and apply his word, even if we cannot see it. Our confidence is not based on how well things seem to be going or on how people receive us. Our confidence is based on the power of God’s word and what God has promised to do with it.

God works through defeats.

One of the greatest hopes of believers is that even setbacks are used by God to accomplish his plan. Proverbs repeatedly speaks of God’s sovereignty over all things, and how he uses even things that look bad to us to accomplish his purposes.

The LORD has made everything for its purpose,
even the wicked for the day of trouble.
(Proverbs 16:4)

Even evildoers accomplish his purposes.

That means when we go through difficult times, it is not evidence that God has stopped working. God can work through even the most difficult times in our lives and the most difficult parts of our ministries.

Every believer, and especially every pastor, can have confidence that God is at work even when we cannot see it, even when it looks like nothing is happening.

Smallness is not insignificant.

By worldly standards, many of our churches do not matter. They are small and insignificant, a rounding error in the big picture of what is happening in the world.

From God’s perspective, every one of his people is precious to him, and every church is significant in his eyes. God does not measure things the way we do. He is not impressed by outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7).

That means that as we faithfully serve, even in the smallest context, we are serving churches that are deeply loved by him. God uses what seems insignificant. In fact, God seems to prefer working through what is small and humanly insignificant to accomplish his purposes.

The smallness of our ministries is no barrier to him. It is not a sign that they are insignificant to God. Therefore, we can serve even in the smallest place with joy, knowing that these places and these people matter to God.

The Spirit delights in glorifying the Son.

I recently read the account of Charles Spurgeon’s first sermon. It was sprung on him at the last minute; he had no time to prepare. He did not really know what he was doing, but he decided that he would talk about Jesus.

“I could surely tell a few poor cottagers of the sweetness and love of Jesus, for I felt them in my soul,” he said. He spoke in 1 Peter 2:7: “Unto you therefore which believe he is precious” (KJV). Even a “raw recruit,” he reasoned, could tell of the preciousness of Jesus.

I think he was onto something, even in his youth.

Our preaching often falls short of where we want it to be. But we can know that if our ministry is built on glorifying Jesus, that is something the Holy Spirit loves to bless. We can all speak of the preciousness of Jesus.

I want to preach God’s word as well as I can. But even then, my confidence is not in my abilities. My confidence is in what the Holy Spirit will do through weak preachers like me as we aim to talk about the preciousness of Jesus.

The more we focus on glorifying Jesus, the more we are in line with what the Spirit wants to do.

Nothing is wasted.

If I am honest, there is a huge part of my ministry that I do not understand. I look back and wonder what God accomplished during that period of my ministry. Humanly speaking, it does not look like much. It involved a lot of suffering. I persisted, hoping things would get better, but they did not. Those years feel wasted.

Yet here is our confidence as believers: nothing is wasted. God uses even the lean times and fallow times for his glory. He is at work in a million ways that we do not see.

Just because we do not know what God is doing during certain periods of our lives does not mean he is doing nothing. In God’s economy, nothing is wasted. Even our suffering is redeemed for his glory and for our good.

You will receive a crown of glory.

Pastors need to hold on to this promise: “And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory” (1 Peter 5:4).

Very likely, we will receive little recognition in this world.

I remember attending a pastor’s retirement celebration. He received a sheet cake from Costco and some kind words from a few people in a church basement. Frankly, it did not look like much after a long ministry.

But that was not the final verdict on that pastor’s ministry.

As pastors, we still look forward to the day when we will stand before our Saviour and hear his commendation. We want to remain faithful to him until then. We do not depend on recognition from others or their applause. There is only one whose recognition matters to us: our Saviour.

So we look forward to the crown of glory we will one day receive. Until then, little else matters.

Do not base your identity or comfort on the apparent success or lack of success in your ministry. Base it on these six truths: God works through his word; he works even through defeats; smallness is not insignificant; the Spirit delights in glorifying the Son; nothing in your life is wasted; and you will receive a crown of glory.

When you base your comfort on these truths, you will stand on very stable ground no matter how well or poorly your ministry seems to be doing.