The Battle to Not Lose Heart

Sometimes I feel like it is a battle to not lose heart. Do you ever feel this way?  Like a part of you wants to throw in the towel, walk away from it all, or just stop trying?

Am I seriously considering quitting my calling as a pastor and teacher of God’s Word?  No.  But I do sometimes (ok, honestly, often) battle with discouragement. I feel my willingness to fight the good fight waning.  I found a good definition of what I mean by “lose heart” in the Luow-Nida Lexicon entry for the words translated “lose heart” in 2 Corinthians 4:1:

Sometimes a song capture an idea in a way that a careful definition (however helpful it is) cannot fully do.  I think the following song captures what I mean by the battle to “not lose heart”:

I thank God that He does hear us cry out.  He has provided encouragement for us when we are tempted to “lose heart.” In fact, in a way, all of Scripture is written to help us with this very struggle:

One extended passage which directly addresses our struggle to not lose hope is found in 1 Corinthians 3:18-4:18.  Here I quote parts of this passage:

NIV 2 Corinthians 3:¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

4:1 Therefore, since through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

. . .

⁵ For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

 ⁶ For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.

 ⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

 ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;

 ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

 ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

. . .

 ¹³ It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak,

 ¹⁴ because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.

 ¹⁵ All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

 ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

 ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

 ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Here are some reasons for not losing heart which I find in the above passage:

We don’t lose heart because:

*  The very struggles which tempt us to lose heart are being used by God to transform us into the image of Christ(3:18).

*  Our ministry, our work, is given to us by God’s grace.  It is a gift from God (4:1).

*  Our message is not about us, it is about Jesus Christ as Lord (4:5).

*  God makes His light shine in our hearts (4:6).

*  God intentionally makes us like weak jars of clay in this life so that it will be all that much more obvious to ourselves and everyone else that “this all-surpassing power is from God” (4:7).

*  While God allows us to be “hard pressed,” he does not allow us to be “destroyed” (4:8-9).

*  We keep on speaking because we believe that God raised Jesus up from the dead and promises to do the same for us. That’s a strong reason to not give up (4:13-14)!

*  God’s grace is in fact reaching more and more people, even when we don’t see it in the ways we would like (4:15).

*  God renews us day by day (4:16).

*  The problems we face, which tempt us to lose heart, are being used by God to achieve eternal glory for us (4:17).

*  We live by faith in God’s promises, even though we do not yet see their complete fulfilment (4:18).

Another key to not losing heart is thinking a lot about Jesus:

When I think about Jesus it helps me to not lose heart.  We remember how He was unjustly treated and killed.  Yet, God’s plan was not hindered.  Far from it, what appeared to be a defeat on the cross turned out to be the salvation of us all.  And the story did not end at the cross.  Jesus rose from the dead.  And He promises to raise us up as well.

The battle to not lose heart is important.  If we hang in there, a glorious harvest is promised:

NIV Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

We can help one another in our struggle to not lose heart.  We can do this by encouraging one another:

NIV 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

We can also pray for one another.  We pray about many things.  Do you know that we can pray for God to strengthen another person’s inner being?  What a powerful and wonderful way to help our brothers and sisters in Christ:

NIV Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

All of this reminds me that while each of us is called to be “a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3) and to “fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12), first and foremost we are called to be God’s children, whom He loves (1 John 3:1).  I think that Twila Paris captured both of these truths well in this classic Christian song:

He loves you!  So don’t lose heart.

Hebrews 13:16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others . . .