In life there is opposition, and in the ministry there certainly is opposition. Working against the grain means their will be resistance. Therefore ministry is full of opposition because we are naturally sinners living in a sinful world, and of course Satan is at work seeking to devour whomever he can (1 Peter 5:8). That being true, we need patience. I think the dream and hope of any new ministry is to grow quickly, which is very rare, and when it does happen, it brings on a new kind of opposition. The desire to grow quickly, but starting out very slow is the normal and it takes patience. This can be true in growth as well as maturity. We must have patience.

One of my favorite verses on this subject is 1 Corinthians 16:9, “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.”. Most people (myself included) would have said, “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, but there are many adversaries.”. But Paul used the word “and” instead of “but”. Why? Because he knew there would be opposition and had patience to serve, love, and reach out through the opposition to win people to Jesus, have them baptized, and to disciple them. The truth is we need patience in the ministry.

God has been so good to us here. We have seen people saved, we have already had the honor of discipling a few, and we have 4-5 people that are interested in being baptized. God is at work in this very young ministry (at the date this article was published, the church is not even a year old). We are seeing great strides and we are seeing resistance. In Jesus we can labor patiently knowing that He is at work among us!