READ: 1 Corinthians 4:9-17
“Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” – 1 Peter 4:19 (NASB)
The perfect will of God is important when a minister is going through hard times of suffering. Be filled with the knowledge of his will concerning your trials and temptations.
It is important for a minister to suffer only according to the will of God. There are many hard experiences that we go through in the ministry.
Yet on another occasion Paul explained that God had spared the life of Epaphroditus because he Paul would not have been able to bear it. “But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need; because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow” (Philippians 2:25-27, NASB).
Paul also explained that it was because of his apostolic calling that he was experiencing these terrible beatings, shipwrecks, hunger, robbery and imprisonment. He explained that the Lord had set apostles apart for that kind of treatment. “For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised” (1 Corinthians 4:9-10).