them, is doing the will of their Father in heaven.

Shortly before Jesus was to go through the supreme test, he found his disciples sleeping. “Could you men not so much as watch one hour with me? Keep on the watch and pray continually, that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit, of course, is eager, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26:40, 41) Yes, though we have a desire, our flesh may be weak. But what did Jesus, a perfect man, do? He went to his heavenly Father in prayer, and the account shows he prayed three times.

So when we get a little weak and tired or discouraged because we cannot do all that we want to do and are striving to do, we should not be surprised. Why not? Because if the Son of God looked to Jehovah for strength and turned to him, why should we not expect to do the same? Prayer gives us strength to continue. Pray rather than say, ‘Jehovah, you have given us too much to do—to take in knowledge, to care for a family, to meet together and to preach your kingdom.’ Actually, what Jehovah has given us is for our protection—the abundance of Kingdom assignments and requirements keeping us so busy we have no time to get ourselves into trouble with worldly things.

Look, moreover, at the example of the early Christians. They were thrown to the lions for faithfully serving Jehovah. They could have said, ‘Well, what’s the harm in putting a pinch of incense before a bust of Caesar? That’s nothing. Jehovah is requiring too much of us.’ No, they were willing to be thrown to the lions rather than to compromise. They did not view God’s requirement of integrity as being too much. They knew that he could give them life again by a resurrection from the dead.

PAUL’S VIEW OF THE MATTER

At times we may feel it is too much to go to a meeting in bad weather or to go out in the ministry. Perhaps we do not have the best of health. But just think what the apostle Paul went through and then we will appreciate that our problems are, in most cases, molehills by comparison: “Are they ministers of Christ? . . . I am more outstandingly one: in labors more plentifully, in prisons more plentifully, in stripes to an excess, in near-deaths often. By Jews I five times received forty strokes less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I experienced shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the deep; . . . in labor and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in abstinence from food many times, in cold and nakedness.” (2 Cor. 11:23-27) Yes, and Paul also said: “Besides those things of an external kind, there is what rushes in on me from day to day, the anxiety for all the congregations.” (2 Cor. 11:28) Besides all the difficulties Paul had, he was concerned with the congregations! How much like overseers and servants today who are often up late at night trying to figure out what they can do to help this one or that one, or how to care for the needs of the congregation!

Certainly it was not easy for Paul to go through those difficulties, yet he did not say it was too much. He knew he was doing God’s will, and he found satisfaction in being of service to his Christian brothers. So he said: “I am filled with comfort, I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.”—2 Cor. 7:4.

RIGHT VIEW OF GOD’S REQUIREMENTS

Sometimes we may feel that what we are accomplishing in the ministry is not enough. It is not spectacular. But Jehovah is not asking for the spectacular. He just wants us to preach this good news of the Kingdom to the best of our ability and keep on progressing in knowledge and growing in the fruitage of his holy spirit.

Yet one may say, ‘I’m so weak; I wish I had the strength. If I were young again!’ But do not feel that way. Remember how Paul expressed it: “I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in cases of need, in persecutions and difficulties, for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am powerful.” (2 Cor. 12:10) When we have difficulties and physical weakness, is that bad? Not necessarily. When we realize we cannot do it in our own strength, then we come to be powerful in Jehovah, in his spirit and in his Word.

The fact that God has given us encouragement to do plenty in the work of the Lord requires that we be honest with ourselves. (1 Cor. 15:58) Jesus said: “Everyone to whom much was given, much will be demanded of him.” (Luke 12:48) What have we been given in the way of assets, such as energy and health and time for Bible study and the ministry? If we have been given much, much will be required, but not too much. We are required to exert ourselves according to our peculiar circumstances, making room to do more as we are able, even praying that circumstances will favor us with the opportunity to do more.

Since the career of a Christian is likened by the apostle Paul to a race course, God requires that we “run with endurance the race that is set before us” and reach the goal line. God tells us how to run the race to win—by avoiding whatever will burden us or weigh us down. If the race is too much at times, it may be that you are making it that way by staying up too late too often for recreation, rather than making it an occasion to renew your strength. Never lose sight of the goal. Jehovah does not require too much—just enough to show where our heart is and just enough to win the prize.—Heb. 12:1.

Keep strong your appreciation for the truth; never cease to make known to God your gratitude for the privilege of being numbered among his servants and having the hope of everlasting life in his righteous new order; keep in mind the urgent need of others to learn the truth and take their stand on Jehovah’s side now. Be balanced in caring for your responsibilities. If you do, you will never get to feeling that Jehovah requires too much.

“I Will by No Means Leave You”

● The Watch Tower Society has maintained in Brazil, as in other countries of the world, a special school called the Kingdom Ministry School for training congregation overseers. Although free, it has often involved great difficulties for the overseers, as they still needed to support their families while they were away for a month taking the course.

One of such overseers, in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, who has a wife and four children, thought that his situation in this respect was so difficult that he would not be able to take the course. Two weeks before his group was to begin, he still had no solution. So he prayed to Jehovah God, and the exact answer can be summed up in the words of Hebrews 13:5, where Jehovah promises: “I will by no means leave you nor by any means forsake you.” Several brothers, knowing the overseer’s financial difficulties, took good care of his family in a material way, while he, although poor in this world’s wealth, became richer in knowledge of God and received training so that he could give more and more help to the brothers in his congregation.