Jesus had crowds of followers throughout His ministry. People flocked to Him and followed Him as He preached, taught and healed. Remember the crowd of 5,000 and another one of 4,000? While religious leaders didn’t want Him around, the people did.
However, during the darkest moments of His life, right before His crucifixion, he was all alone. Forsaken, abandoned, denied. Even the disciples, His most devoted followers left Him. When He was about to take the most important step in His ministry, He had to go it alone.
When You are Alone
Don’t you think it would have been easier if there had been someone standing with Him? It’s always much easier to deal with the tough situations in life when we have someone standing with us. We have support of loved ones at a funeral, family when we are battling a serious illness. It doesn’t make the pain go away, but it does make it easier to bear.
If you choose a difficult ministry, there may be times when you don’t have that support. Everyone is against you because they don’t like the stand you are taking. You are going against what is popular so the public doesn’t like you. Your family disagrees with what you are doing so they don’t support you. Even the very person or people you are trying to help don’t want your assistance so they fight you along the way. It may be their culture, their family, their lifestyle or their habits that make them fight back. Whatever the reason, you stand completely, totally alone.
Never Alone
When you feel like you are all alone and facing your darkest hour, remember that you are not doing what you do because it is popular, you are doing it because God called you to serve Him. In serving others, that is exactly what you are doing. There may be times when you are the only one that understands that.
It is during this time that you must draw close to God and lean on Him for support. He has promised never to leave you or forsake you even when everyone else has gone away. Remember that Christ faced that same aloneness in His ministry, when others didn’t understand what He was doing for them. He certainly understands what you are going through and He will never leave you to go through it alone.
Have you felt alone in your ministry? What held you up when you wanted to give up and quit? We all need encouragement, and sometimes that may come from strangers who comment on a blog. So share your stories to lift up others who may be going through a similar situation in their ministries.
