“Let’s face it — we’re all just one text message away, one email away, one call away from disaster or getting the wind knocked out of our sails,” Crawford Loritts said.
Everyone faces discouragement. That’s true in a normal year, but especially in a year like this one, Loritts — senior pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Georgia — said in his message to the Alabama Baptist Pastors Conference on Nov. 16.
“We will all be glad when this whole COVID-19 thing is in the rearview mirror,” he said. “But until then, we’ve got to deal with the realities in front of us. No pandemic can change the truth of His Word.”
Loritts challenged pastors to make five critical choices when they’re faced with discouragement.
“My will plays a huge part in my emotional well being,” he said. “It’s what I choose to do when I’m discouraged that will determine if I’m branded by darkness.”
- Choose truth.
“First, choose the truth about the situation,” he said, noting that when you get bad news, it’s easy to exaggerate reality in your mind.
But most importantly, he said, “Choose the truth of God’s Word.”
- Choose joy
Next, choose joy, regardless of your circumstances, Loritts said. He shared Paul’s admonition to “rejoice always” from Philippians 4:4, noting that when Paul wrote that book, he himself didn’t have much to rejoice about — imprisonment was his reality.
“Our will must direct our emotions,” Loritts said. “Joy has to be independent of our circumstances.”
- Choose faith
“Faith is being sure of unseen realities,” he said. “Faith should always drive us to desperation — not despair, but desperation.”
Loritts recounted the story of the woman who touched Jesus, desperate to be healed from her issue of blood.
“Faith should drive us to that point where we want to go straight to the arms of our great God,” Loritts said. “When discouragement bangs on our door, we are driven to Him.”
- Choose community
When discouragement looms, “resist the temptation of withdrawing and retreating,” he said. “We need community — don’t fly solo. Rush toward one another.”
- Choose service
Loritts said he knows there are seasons in life and ministry where pastors need to pull back, withdraw and take sabbaticals.
But even in the midst of those seasons, don’t quit serving people, he said.
“Sometimes it’s in the context of serving that God gives us the strength to keep going,” he said. “Often we have to serve during dry times. I’ve been there.”
But while pastors pray for refreshing like Psalm 126:4 — “Restore our fortunes, Lord, like streams in the Negev” — the tears they’re shedding can be “holy fertilizer” for God’s work, Loritts said.
“During your times of great brokenness, pressure and discouragement, you look back and see what God has done, and there’s this bumper crop. You think, ‘I didn’t realize he was using me that way,’” he said. “So I’d encourage you, keep showing up. Get the rest you need. get perspective. Take a look at your calendar, whack some stuff off that’s draining you … but don’t stop.”
The conference — an all-virtual, cost-free conference that you can watch from your home or office at your own pace — is still available at albaptistpc.com/virtual-conference.
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