In Chapter 9 of Overcoming, Pastor Steve Mays, who has had multiple surgeries over the years with resultant agonizing pain, proclaims that when God desires to do something unbelievable in our life, He often will bring us to “a place of difficulty in which things do not make sense.” In the time of transition following our ministry downsizing or position loss, we struggle to make sense of what happened as well as why it happened. Furthermore, we still have the desire for ministry, but cannot grasp what form that future ministry might take.
Yet it is precisely in this moment of utter discouragement that God will show us His direction for our life. In this time of human weakness, Pastor Mays says we need to be still (Psalm 46:10) and listen to God. Steve offers this on-point quote from Scottish preacher and theologian George Matheson (1842-1906):
“To lie down in the time of grief, to be quiet under the stroke of adverse fortune, implies a great strength. But I know of something that implies a greater strength still. It is the power to work under stress, to continue under hardship, to have anguish in your spirit and still perform daily tasks. This is a Christ-like thing. The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise patience, not in the sick bed, but in the street.”
