“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Gal. 6:9)
Without some form of increase, without some showing, some visible proof of our efforts, we will grow weary. Born-again believers who have set themselves to the work of God can withstand contentions, we can contend for the faith without being swayed by every doctrine that arrives from others attempting to invalidate that which we know is truth, but to not see any increase, some fruit from our labors can grow within us a sense of discontentment, and we will grow weary.
The world understands this, as an example, as you perform the tasks set before you in your employment field, as time goes on, you are given an increase most generally in your wages, granted at times it may be but a small pittance, but it modifies, as it is meant to, your approach towards your labors there, it is a way to keep you from growing weary. The regular, sometimes repetitive and mundane continuation of life is swayed with vacations, items purchased simply for the desires of the flesh and not the needs, or simply something different in that day’s activities that are the general expectation, all so we do not become weary.
Look here at the life of Jeremiah, one man out of how many thousands, twenty plus years of warning, pleading, even offering the threatening of the Most High, and still he continued in what was placed before him.
Those who serve the Most High work when they are weary, when no one seems to be listening, when no one is responding immediately, when the tasks seem repetitive and seems to offer nothing of any value. Being weary is not being bored, it is frustration.
I have noticed over the last few short decades the obligation of Sunday morning, the silence of those during the week of those who do not forsake the assembling of themselves together, the search for the pleasures of this world by those who either profess the Lord Jesus Christ with their lips only, or in private conversations, most generally within the confines of that building they call a church, and then only sporadically.
I have watched as those who stand behind the pulpit beg and plead with those sitting in the pews, generally in the ones towards the back of the meeting room, to read their Bibles, to study the Word of God, to reach out to the lost with the gospel. I have sat in what those same individuals call Bible Studies on Monday and Wednesday evenings, where those same ones, though much fewer in number will sit silent for the most part, and when asked after a particular section that has been covered, “Questions, comments, suggestions?” and all I have heard is the clock ticking in the background.
Have those in attendance both in what is called that Sunday morning service and that midweek Bible Study grown weary with the work, are they professing Christ only with their lips, or is this a sure sign of the great falling away, (2 Thess. 2:3) the apostacy? “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” (1 Sam. 16:7)
In Matthew 13:8 the Lord said, “But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” It is the proof of a man’s labor of love for his Savior, it is the visible recognition of souls brought to the Lord, and it is, in just one way how He blesses us, how He reveals to us that our work is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15:58)
But I place this before you today, if none are responding to the work that the Lord has placed before you, how are we to tell if we are unprofitable, or if we are as Jeremiah was, sent to a place where none would listen? And I ask you this also, if you are positive, without a single doubt that your life is being used by the Holy Spirit for the glory of God, should it matter? The just my friends, live by faith, not by sight.
