Living in long-term ministry requires a stamina that only comes from the Lord. Donna Gaines knows the secret to longevity in ministry lies in our intimacy with Christ, having spent the last 41 years as a pastor’s wife and ministry leader. She shares today how that intimacy has kept her going, even in the darkest times.

1. Longevity is achieved through intimacy with Christ, a support system of friends and mentors, and prioritizing your relationship with your husband.

“When I receive my basic needs for love and significance in my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I’m able to love my husband, my family, and my neighbor out of the overflow. When I love Him with my whole being, He fills me with His love for others. I’m able to love them out of that overflow instead of sucking life out of them, instead of looking to them to meet a need that Christ has already met for me. That’s primary.”

“I’ve never seriously considered quitting, because I felt so called. I believe if you’re a pastor’s wife you’re called because God doesn’t call half a flesh and we’re one flesh with our husbands. Operate in your giftedness. Whatever God has gifted you in is a gift to the body of Christ and we need to be living and walking in that giftedness. Whether you’re a pastor’s wife or not, that calling is on all of us as believers.”

Literacy Nonprofit: Arise2Read

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