Difficulties and testing are just as much a part of God's plan as blessings, and that's the focus of our discussion today. We dive into how challenges in church communications can feel overwhelming, yet they serve a vital purpose in our growth and dependence on God. Drawing from Scripture, we explore the importance of these trials, pointing out that even Jesus faced testing in the desert. It’s easy to forget that our struggles can lead to valuable lessons and spiritual growth, helping us to become more effective in our ministry. As we navigate through these tough times, let’s remember that we’re not alone; we have the promise of God’s presence and support in our work.
Takeaways:
Difficulties and tests in our lives are integral to God's plan for growth and understanding.
The podcast emphasizes that even during our struggles, we can find purpose and strength in our faith.
Real growth often comes from facing challenges that push us to rely on God's guidance.
The importance of learning new skills is highlighted, especially when faced with technical difficulties in communication.
Jesus and the Israelites faced trials but ultimately moved into their purpose, reminding us that struggles are temporary.
We are encouraged to support one another in our ministries, as these challenges can help us encourage others in their faith.
Good morning, I'm Yvon Prehn and I'd like to welcome you to Monday Devotions for Church Communicators. This podcast will start your week with prayer and a challenge from God's Word.
This is Week Seven of our Devotions for Church Communicators and the topic for today is Difficulties and Testing are as much Part of God's Plan as Blessings.
I have two verses for you that inspired this topic.
The first one is from Deuteronomy 7:13 where it says, "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the desert these 40 years to humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands."
And then in Matthew 4:1 it says, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil."
These are difficult words.
We like to focus on God's promises of provision and joy in our lives and rather than to be reminded that difficulties in testing are also allowed by our God. We'd rather not think about that, but difficulties are a part of life, especially a life spent working in church communications.
The world of computer created communications will never stop changing. It will never become less complicated and demanding. Temptations to despair, frustration and anger are part of our work.
Sometimes the team of people we work with doesn't make our load lighter, but heavier. Sometimes we can't explain why we aren't able to produce what they want and we don't know how to fix the problems they perceive.
Sometimes we're shocked by the anger and resentment that wells up inside us in response to what we consider an unreasonable demand. At those times, these verses can comfort us because even our troubles have a useful purpose.
We never know how strong a rope is until a weight is hung from it. We never know how genuine trust in God is until it's tested in the daily grind of projects and deadlines.
We might assume we rely on God in every area of our lives. But until we absolutely cannot handle a technology or a communication team issue without God's help, we may not realize how we've left this part of our life out of his guidance and control.
In the same way that we can't correct a problem in a manuscript until we see it, it's hard to grow in our faith until we're aware of our shortcomings. So our Lord allows testing to come often amid our work for him so that we can learn and grow.
If we haven't taken time to learn the skills we need, a technological challenge might force us to learn a skill we've been putting off learning if we don't see the sin that lingers in our soul. We aren't challenged to grow in our Christian lives so that we can respond with gentleness and kind words under pressure.
Not only will our growth benefit us, but we can be an encouragement to others.
It can remind them that God cares just as much about helping us create an effective newsletter with a computer or other church communication teams tasks as he does with helping us teach a Bible study effectively. The context of these verses also gives us hope. Neither Jesus nor the children of Israel stayed in the desert of tempting.
Jesus came out of the desert into a life of ministry. The children of Israel went into the Promised land. Our trials serve the same purpose.
We aren't destined to stay in them, but to learn from them to be better equipped for the communication ministry ministry our Lord is leading us to where we can accomplish things for him that we can't even imagine now.
Let me pray for you this week as you tackle the many challenges that you have.
Lord, I know many of the dear church communicators listening to this are struggling right now. Maybe it's with a computer, maybe it's with people, maybe it's with a budget, maybe it's all of the above.
Things at home, things at work, everything just piling on. And Lord, I pray that first of all you just really block the enemy.
That you'd show people what it is that you want to do in them and use this trouble to grow them to become more and more like Jesus. Whatever the reason for the trials, Lord, though, encourage them, give them strength.
Help them to be able to go back to their work with a newfound reliance on you, hope in you, and the promise that you're with them always no matter what the trial or temptation is. Lord, give us joy today as we serve you in Jesus name. Amen.
For links to lots more materials to encourage you and help you be a better church communicator, go to the website www.effectivechurchcom.com. The book that the devotions are from is available on Amazon and it is entitled Devotions for Church Communicators.
Hopefully that's kind of easy to remember and I would encourage you to keep listening each week for more encouragement and prayers for you as you do your incredibly important work.
