Saturday, March 17, 2018

God Delights In Weakness

I am adding some spiritual perspective to my last two posts, to offer some counter-balance, as to how one responds -- if here or there one sees psychological problems in ministry. The fact is that some of the greatest men and women of God, both in the Bible and in the Church, had significant psychological problems. Elijah is a well known example in the Bible, while in the Church there are many: Bunyan, Watts, Spurgeon, and so on. I think the key question in such cases is: is this person called by God? We do not ask first whether he or she is a broken reed -- or worse, write them off because they are. OBSERVATION: I think that there are three potential advantages to psychological or emotional weakness in ministry: such a minister may better identify with his or her people's pain, he or she may have gained greater wisdom to minister, and we are told that Christ's power is made perfect in weakness. Paul wrote: "For the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses." I believe that these weaknesses would include physical, emotional, and psychological weaknesses.

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