Press On!

Colossians 1:28-29
  "Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." 
 There are not many things that please me more than seeing people come to know Jesus. God has given me the heart of an evangelist. I have a deep calling and desire to reach everyone I can with the good news of salvation. Even so, I must admit that I get tired and weary. My emotions rise to the top and I begin to reason in my own heart. My reasoning rarely agrees with what God would have me to do. It is this reasoning that many of us deal with and, if we are not careful, we will talk ourselves right out of doing God's work. We can even make it sound logical and rational to ourselves! We ask ourselves questions or make statements like, " Is what I am doing really worth it?" or "Am I really reaching anyone?" And there is my personal favorite, " I'm not any good at this anyway!" Yes, you can rest assured that you, along with the help of your adversary,"the devil," can talk yourself out of the ministry that God has given you to do. It's at times like this that I think about the Apostle Paul. I wonder how he felt after his times of being beaten, stoned and shipwrecked! Every time he was persecuted it was for the sake of the gospel so someone else might hear about the saving grace of Jesus. I'm sure he was tired, he felt pain and he suffered but it was so someone might hear about about the saving grace of Jesus! I'm sure Paul became discouraged and depressed but he fought through it...... WHY?..... So someone might hear about the saving grace of Jesus! Paul wrote to the Philippian church in Phil 3:14, "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
 He knew something about himself. Paul knew that whatever pain and struggle he faced on earth was extremely small compared to his prize in Heaven. He knew that the things he faced were nothing compared to the fact that other people were being radically saved through his ministry and these are great things to know. However, there is one more thing Paul realized that topped the list. It was and still is the greatest driving force in every ministry on the planet today! In Colossians 1:29 he wrote, "To this end I labor, striving according to HIS working which works in me mightily. Like Paul, we need to know that we labor and strive according to the power of the HOLY SPIRIT and not our own. WE need to know that this power works mightily in us! CHRISTIAN, you are not being driven by your own will, you are not being equipped by your own resources and you are not being empowered according to human flesh. You have the indwelling of Almighty God, and He is the power that works in you mightily. If I may be bold for my Lord Jesus, I say to you, GOD has called you and you are not ordinary! You are extraordinary! You are a preacher of the gospel! You can not quit, you can not walk away, you must strive toward the upward call! Press on! Someone needs Jesus, someone is hurting, someone is lost, and you are God's chosen messenger!  Press on