Jesus hit a few dark days doing ministry. Some of his worst were probably when His hometown got so caught up in seeing Him as a regular guy that they would not listen to His message. The people Jesus knew best, loved most, and spent his life around wouldn’t respond to God’s truth.

Then Jesus gets word of His cousin’s grisly, pointless death at the hands of the paranoid King Herod.

Those are the kind of days that hurt, but also the days that cause us to ask an important question: Why am I doing this? Am I doing this for the reward of people changing? Am I doing this because I expect to be blessed with stuff?

While I hope you are blessed with seeing life change and having your needs met easily, our primary reason for doing ministry must be to honor and please and love God. We do it for Him, and audience of One. Otherwise, we won’t last long in ministry, because dark days come in all our lives, even the life of God’s Son.