Are your insides drying up?

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 (The Holy Bible, NIV Version)
7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

2Corinthians 4:7-12 (The Holy Bible, NIV Version)

19 years of ministry. Setting up literacy centres. Organizing rescue operations for victims of the tsunami. Getting medical care to those in great need. AIDS video project. Huge evangelistic efforts. Major personal sacrifices relocating his family including his wife and 2 young sons from the comforts of North America to the primitive living in the jungles of Indonesia and Papua, New Guinea. A heritage of ministry in this part of the world from his and her parents.

Yet here was the church member asking him, "What have you ever done for us?"

He was haunted by these words as the past year rolled before his eyes, the 19th year of ministry, undoubtedly the most difficult they had encountered: a huge church split--22 churches leaving the denomination; 4 of his trusted national colleagues dying; slandered; threatened; house burnt down; windows barred for safety; and just before they returned home on furlough, a missionary colleague, a pilot with a young wife and kids, smashed into a mountain and his body could not be recovered for 3 days.

Do you think he had any right to be cynical? To lose heart? To be weary in doing good?

I looked at him, his body thin, his face gaunt, his eyes tired. Yet as he spoke, the life of Jesus was being revealed in church this Sunday, the kid who was terrified to speak in front of people, now speaking all the time.
In the language of the people there, do not lose heart was translated as do not let your insides dry up. What kept them from drying up? God's people.

When the government official advised him when called to the police station that they had to decide if their family would be deported for making the government look bad in the AIDS video as their enemies had reported, he bowed and prayed that God would wake up the Alliance women to pray. God did.

What kept them from drying up? God's calling.

The emails went out. The emails poured in. The prayers went up. He got a call from the police again and was asked out for coffee. The official declared that the video was a good thing, that they were doing great things for their country and wanted him to go back home and recruit more people. He declared to the officer, "God has called me to this country. When His work is done, then it is He Who will take me out."

What kept them from drying up? God's Word.

Feeling discouraged, God gave his wife Isaiah 58:9-12:

9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.
11 The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

She wrote it out, put it in a Ziplock bag, and stuck it on the bathroom wall. When the house burnt down, even the copper wire melted into a lump. As the congregation gathered around the ashes, right on top there was a miracle: the Ziplock bag with God's Word still clearly visible. A lesson that His Word stands; that is now framed as a lifelong testament of God's faithfulness.

What else kept them from drying up? The great cloud of witnesses who had gone on before. The Christian martyrs all over the world. Jaffrey, Bell, Liddell, the Foxes Book of Martyrs. So many who persevered. The harvest, believers who now shine like a light in the darkness.

Are you weary in doing good today? Has the battle been fierce? Are you battered and bruised even as you serve Him? Fix your eyes on Jesus so that your insides do not dry up. A lesson for me. Thank You, Lord.

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Hebrews 12:1-3)