Synopsis "Be Encouraged: For Pastors and Wives (in English)"
As Lifeway's Dr. Mark Dance writes in the Foreword, ministry is the only occupation that requires couples to win both at work and at home. "Your ministry," writes Dance, "will never be stronger than your marriage." Be Encouraged (for pastors and wives) is an affirmation of God's special calling on and love for ministry couples. Husbands and wives who do ministry as a team are real people with real problems, too, and they need encouragement as much as anyone else. Tony and Vanessa share seven powerful words of encouragement in this book for those chosen by God to love and lead his church. Chapter 1 will remind you that even when you don't feel it and even when you can't see it, you are loved beyond measure as a son or daughter of the Most High God. God's love for you is not performance based. He does not love you because of who you are or what you have done. God loves you because of who he is, and all that he has done for you.Chapter 2's purpose is to remind you that you are called by God to do what you do, right where you are doing it until he calls you somewhere else to do something else. Romans 11:29 says that God's gifts and calling are irrevocable. As you, no doubt, have heard before: if he has called you to it, he will see you through it.Chapter 3 highlights the awe-inspiring truth of God's forgiveness in Christ Jesus. As a child of God, nothing in your past can revoke God's will for your present or your future. Satan loves to dig up what God has buried in Christ, especially in the case of a pastor and wife who have been forgiven much by God. Don't let Satan write the narrative with regard to your past sin. Rest in the completed work of Christ. Chapter 4 will remind you that you are well equipped for the good work to which God has called you. With the indwelling Holy Spirit and the written Word alone, you have everything you need to run the race God has set before you. Add to that your past experiences, relationships, education and special talents, and see that God has uniquely gifted you to go wherever the Spirit leads and accomplish great things for his glory. Chapter 5's encouragement may surprise you at a quick glance: you are rich! Yes, rich. In Christ, God has already lavished on you all the wealth of his kingdom. When you don't have a dollar to your name, if you look in your spiritual bank account you will still see numbers in there you do not even know how to pronounce. Chapter 6, you are strong. These pages will help you to recall that it is in the strength of the Lord that you are to stand against the tactics of the Devil. Sometimes God allows us to be stretched to our limits so that he can reveal to us just how strong we really are in the power of the Holy Spirit. Chapter 7 highlights the beautiful certainty that you, child of God, are absolutely invaluable to him. God created you in his image and after his likeness. He paid the highest of prices to secure your redemption. He has deposited his Holy Spirit in you. He has gifted you uniquely to fulfill his calling on your life. We often forget that God himself is our greatest prize. But God never forgets that you are his.
