Your toil is not in vain - 1 Corinthians 15-16

The work of the ministry (of serving Christ) is the most demanding of all labor. Those who have decided to take up the cross and follow Christ have chosen a life of demand and, at times, great discouragement. Christ said we would be hated by this world (John 17); that we would suffer (Luke 23); and, that the enemy of this world desires to sift us like wheat (Luke 22:31). Even our own brothers - those who know the Lord - desert us and defect to the other side. Those who do Christian ministry as a vocation find themselves often alone and unable to share deep spiritual battles for fear of judgment or even dismissal from service - and certainly a lost of credibility and power in ministry. Yet, we are to put a smile on the face and joy in the step. We are often criticized for the hypocrites we are and, yet, often called upon to be there when someone needs us, as though God's right hand servant. It is for this reason I believe Paul wrote the words in 1 Corinthians 15:58. He had just explained the entire point of the resurrection of Christ and how that gives us the one hope we have - we don't live for the issues of today but what is in store for us tomorrow. As a result of knowing the resurrection of Christ we can know as a fact that our toil and labor are not in vain, "in the Lord." We might all want to give up and give in at some time. But, it is God who is our strength and who takes our meager efforts and turns them into works of grace for eternity.