Transitions in pastoral ministry are sometimes outside of our control. Regardless of the specific details, we must always remember to rest in the reality that God is sovereign. We may not be able to dictate the duration or our direction, but we can determine our actions.  As we consider the example of Paul, whose life was purchased by the Savior and empowered by the Spirit, may we always seek to finish well.

Unlike God, who is immutable, human beings experience change. It’s an integral element of our human experience. Recognizing our sinfulness, we’re grateful for the ability to change, as the sanctifying work of God’s Spirit is increasingly shaping and molding us to be more like Christ (2 Cor 3:18).
In addition, the Lord has designed our world to undergo perpetual change (Gen 8:22). For most of us, we’re no longer experiencing the warm evenings associated with summer. Instead, we’ve recently begun to feel the cool, crisp air of autumn. Looking around, we see the vibrant colors of leaves changing and falling. The breathtaking beauty of this convergence of seasons reminds us that our sovereign God orchestrates the timing of all things with profound precision. It also helps us to remember, even when life is challenging, that the seasons and circumstances of our lives are completely under his lordship and control. As the nineteenth-century Dutch theologian, Abraham Kuyper, so famously said:
There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’1
This reality is especially comforting when we encounter life’s transitions. Whether we’re leaving one job and beginning another, moving from one community to another, or perhaps retiring from a career and preparing for a new season of life, transitions are inevitable. This concept is also true for pastoral and ministry assignments, as we see evidenced in the life of the Apostle Paul. Throughout Paul’s life as a minister of the gospel, the Lord was sovereignly directing his path every step of the way. Paul often had plans for ministry, but the changing circumstances providentially dictated when and where Paul would travel next (Acts 16:6).
In Acts 20, we find an example of how Paul navigated these ministry transitions. For context, while embarking on his third missionary journey, the Apostle spent time ministering in Ephesus and ran into a great deal of hostility. A riot broke out in Ephesus after Paul preached the gospel, which precipitated the need to leave Ephesus earlier than he had planned. Yet, through it all, even though the circumstances and seasons of Paul’s life were ever-changing and often unpredictable, what didn’t change, by God’s grace, was his Kingdom-centered perspective.
He Provides Encouragement
We see the Apostle’s approach in the first two verses of Acts 20. It says there:
After the uproar ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said farewell and departed for Macedonia. When he had gone through those regions and had given them much encouragement, he came to Greece (Acts 20:1-2)
Notice, first, that as God moves Paul around, from place to place, even very rapidly at times, the Apostle does not focus on personal rejection or allow himself to be swallowed up by self-pity. Instead, during these seasons of transition, Paul seeks to be an encouragement to others. He’s intentionally coming alongside the saints who are serving and ministering in various places, and he’s finding ways to build them up and strengthen them in their faith.
Why is this important? Well, because believers don’t always do a very good job of encouraging one another. In fact, discouragement comes quite naturally to us. We do that in a variety of ways:

By being harsh or overly critical
By disrespecting and offending
By being envious and jealous
By failing to show patience
By gossiping

These are just a few of the ways believers can sometimes discourage one another, and they’re all like a poison to the health of the local church. Yet, encouragement is something we all need, especially during times of transition (Rom 1:11-12). So, regardless of the circumstances, rather than being self-focused, let’s be Kingdom-focused and fight for encouragement.
He Desires to be an Example
The leadership Paul displayed in this account is remarkable. Picking the text up at verse 17, it says:
Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them: ‘You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ’  (Acts 20:17-21).
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Written by B.C. Newton |
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
The act of making our requests known to God is all about surrendering our stress of the unknown and uncontrollable to our all-loving, all-knowing, and all-controlling Father. Prayer is the finite placing confidence in the infinite.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.Philippians 4:6 ESV

Life is one gigantic string of endless possibilities. We all make plans, but none of them are set in stone. Someone may desire to live a long, healthy life as a rich man, only to die young and a pauper. Many things in life are simply outside of our control. No matter how much preparations we make, life will often take completely unexpected turns, for better or worse.
When any of this happens, the natural inclination of the human heart is to become anxious. In some cases, the stresses of life build to such a level that the person actually has an anxiety attack. Fortunately, the Bible is the most applicable book ever written, and it does not forget to deal with such issues as anxiety.
Shockingly, however, the Bible’s answer for anxiety is merely not to be anxious. Most anxiety sufferers would argue that such a response is kind of like telling someone sick with pneumonia to stop being sick. There does not appear to be any rational way to cease being anxious. You cannot simply turn off worry and stress.
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The Covenant of Grace is a “law of the spirit.” The Spirit of God has instituted this covenant and applies it to the lives of men and women who believe. Manton said that Christ himself speaks of covenant in terms of spirit and truth. He says, “Not only because of its spiritual nature, as it cometh nearer and closer to the soul than the law of outward and beggarly rudiments; and therefore Christ called the ordinances of the gospel, spirit and truth (Works of Manton, 11.395).”

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:2

In our circles today, it is not popular to speak about the Gospel as Law or the Law of the Gospel. The Gospel message is one that is received by faith and the division between Law and Gospel is often driven so sharply that there is no room for Law in Gospel or Gospel in Law.
The Puritans, including Thomas Manton, saw grace in law and law in grace, all while maintaining a rigorously Christ-centered Gospel of free grace. There was no hint of the errors of Federal Vision, and yet speaking in terms of law was common parlance for the time.[1] Manton demonstrated in his treatment of the greatest chapter that law is able to be opposed to law—with the Gospel’s law triumphing.
Where does Manton get the idea of the Gospel’s law? Citing several verses which use the language of the law of the Gospel, Manton finds law used positively in the Scriptures. Speaking of the coming Gospel age, Isaiah looked forward to the time when “many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob…for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). Matthew 28:20 also uses language of law as Jesus sends his ministers into the nations preaching the Gospel. Jesus says, “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” The Apostle would speak of believing the Gospel in terms of obedience when he condemned those “that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ”  (2 Thessalonians 1:8). Paul also reminded the Christians in Galatia to press on in the Christian life: “ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 5:7).
The language of law in reference to the Gospel age is much more connected than we are comfortable with today.
Manton helped his readers to see their connectedness to law as well as their disconnectedness in his exposition of Romans 8:2 as he divided the law opposed to the law.
Two Laws
The two laws that are described in the second verse of Romans 8 are the law of sin and death and the law of the Spirit of life. Manton does not imagine these laws as the 10 Commandments versus the Gospel, but clearly articulates that the laws are the two covenants that we find in the Scriptures: the law of “sin and death” is the Covenant of Works and the law of the “Spirit of life in Christ” is the Covenant of Grace.
The Covenant of Works became a law of sin and death when Adam sinned and brought the curse on himself and “for his posterity; all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation…(Westminster Shorter Catechism, 16).”
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