DAILY TEXT, From today Saturday June 24, 2023,  Let us not stop doing what is right (Gal. 6:9).

Let's Examine the Scriptures Every Day 2023

Saturday June 24

Let us not stop doing what is right (Gal. 6:9).

How happy and proud we are to be Jehovah's Witnesses! We are happy to help someone who has “the right attitude to obtain everlasting life” to become a servant of Jehovah.—Acts 13:48. We feel like Jesus, who “felt exceedingly happy through the holy spirit” when his disciples returned from a preaching campaign and told him of their good experiences (Luke 10:1, 17, 21). The apostle Paul gave this advice to Timothy: "Pay constant attention to your conduct and your teaching." And he added: “Thus you will save yourself and also those who listen to you” (1 Tim. 4:16). These words show us that lives are at stake. We pay constant attention to our conduct because we are citizens of the Kingdom of God. We always want to behave in a way that honors Jehovah and shows that we believe in the good news that we announce (Phil. 1:27). And we pay attention to our teaching by preparing well for preaching and asking Jehovah for help when we go to tell others about him. w21.10 24 pars. 1, 2.

What might be the reaction of the people to the Kingdom message, and what example demonstrates this?

However, even when we do our best in the ministry, the people in our territory may show little or no interest in the Kingdom message. Let us think of brother Georg Lindal, who preached alone throughout Iceland from 1929 to 1947. He left thousands and thousands of publications in the hands of the people, but no one became a Witness. He wrote: "Some have turned against the truth, but most have remained totally indifferent." Later missionaries from Gilead came to help with the preaching, but the people weren't responding either. Finally, nine years later, some people in the land dedicated their lives to Jehovah and were baptized.b

How can we feel when people reject our message?

When people reject our message, we feel disappointed. We may be like Paul, who said he had “great sorrow and constant sorrow” because the Jews in general refused to accept that Jesus was the promised Messiah (Rom. 9:1-3). What if we give someone Bible classes, but they don't make progress despite our efforts and prayers, and we end up having to fail the course? Or what if we have never taken anyone to baptism? Should we feel guilty and perhaps think that Jehovah is not blessing our work? In this article, we will answer two questions: how do we know if our ministry is a success? And what realistic expectations should we have?

Why doesn't what we do for Jehovah always bring the results we had hoped for?

When the Bible speaks of the person who does the will of God, it says: "Everything he does will succeed" (Ps. 1:3). But that doesn't mean that everything we do for Jehovah will turn out the way we want. Our imperfection and that of others make life “full of problems” (Job 14:1). In addition, our enemies may be able to temporarily interrupt our free preaching (1 Cor. 16:9; 1 Thes. 2:18). So how does Jehovah measure the success of our ministry? Let's look at some principles from the Bible that will help us answer this question.

How does Jehovah measure the success of our ministry?

Jehovah notices our efforts and our endurance. For him, our ministry is successful if we carry it out with diligence and love, regardless of people's reaction. Paul wrote: “God is not unjust and does not forget your works or the love you showed for his name by having served the saints and by continuing to serve them” (Heb. 6:10). Jehovah does not forget our efforts and our love, even if those efforts have not brought us good results. So, we can apply Paul's words to the Corinthian Christians: “His labor in connection with the Lord is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58). And this is so even though that work has not resulted in what we expected.

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