What is God doing in the hearts of people...

Being a pastor is one of the most incredible, challenges, frustrating and joyful things anyone can be called to. In one week you can go from the highest of high to the lowest of lows and you learn to trust Jesus for his sustaining power and you keep reminding yourself that this is less to do with the people you serve and much more to with the God who you love.

Keeping Jesus at the front of my mind helps me face many of the frustrations and difficulties that come with pastoral ministry. When dealing with gross sin, apathetic faith and traumatic death, sometimes it is tough to keep going. It is then that I need to remind myself: this is about serving Jesus and loving Jesus and working with Jesus in what he is doing.

So in a pastoral conversation this week I got thinking about what God is doing through the Holy Spirit in the hearts of his people.

Sometimes from up front as worship leader or preacher it is difficult to see what Jesus is doing. Sometimes you can lead a home group or teach a KidsChurch class for years and see little growth. Sometimes I wonder is anything happening here and then in one week I might have contact with five or six people who are really wrestling with Jesus as to what it means to follow him. They desire to live holy lives, they want to make a real difference in the world, they are broken with pain because of a friends continued lack of belief in Jesus. I meet people who are striving to pray more faithfully, read the bible more deeply and be filled with the Spirit more completely. I hear a businessman wrestle with being honest in a dishonest world. A mother wanting to know how to instil godly discipline into her children. A teenager wanting to retain sexual purity for marriage. A bright thinker struggling to trust Jesus in the questions he has, a grieving family calling on God for strength and grace in a time of loss.

From the outside not much changes. We still look the same. We wear the same clothes and drive the same car.

But inside the heart is being renewed and sometimes we miss what God is doing as he transforms the hearts of men, women and children to be conformed to Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Trust Jesus that he will build this church. He will raise up the leaders, he will disciple the faithful he will save the lost and we need to do what we are called to do and trust Jesus for the rest.