The apostle Paul writes to the Christians in Corinth concerning what is expected of one who would seek to be a witness to faith in Jesus Christ in this world. We continue our reading in his second letter in chapter 4, verses 15-16:  All this is for your benefit, To be brought into the presence of Father God by Jesus when we bring someone into an awareness of their own Savior and Redeemer is a precious gift to us indeed.

The entire thrust of all of our efforts to bring others into a believing position is that God would get all of the glory of everything we do:  so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. We cannot help but recall what went on in us when we came into that same realization of God’s grace, and that is powerfully multiplied when we bless others.

The apostle then speaks of not losing his evangelistic edge:  Therefore we do not lose heart. There are times when it seems that everything we do is for naught, and that we are wasting our time somehow. But we cannot escape the memory of that last person we won for the Lord, and the one before that, and so on and so forth. Our service to our King and Lord is never wasted! Even failures lead to victories over time.

And it does sometimes appear that we are clearly losing it, but our God will never let us down:  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. We are committed to be God’s servants no matter what any singular outcome might be with any individual because the wins far outweigh any losses we might experience. It is for our benefit that we trust our Lord with all that we do.