Malachi 3:13  Your words have been hard against me, says the Lord. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ 14 You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?

      When we become the target of harsh and negative words, it can feel like we have had a big rubber stamp punched across our forehead that says, “Canceled.” Many ministers go through this hardship and feel like they have become cancelable. Once called upon to help in an emergency, now chucked to the broom closet because the emergency is over. Once a needed pastor who gave sage advice and direction is now considered a pester and not a pastor, who should mind their own business.

      Ministers in positions of leading assemblies, counselling the heartbroken and ill, while directing those needing help in life, often receive desperate phone calls or frantic whispered encounters in the church lobby from people who have messed up their lives and are now begging for help to escape the consequences of their sinful choices. “I’ll do whatever it takes to get my life in order,” are the promises made in those moments of desperation. The amount of prayer, dedication, late nights studying, and spiritual strength it takes for honest ministers to fortify their hearts to become the helpers the fallen need, is unexplainable to those who think ministers and what they do are no big deal. The facts are, that the minister’s soul is invested in those they are helping and it can be a brutal awakening when these same pastors are shoved to the side because the fallen no longer want to go forward after all the promises of solicitude were made in desperation. Mal. 3:14 You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the Lord of hosts?      

      Even God can become cancelable in people’s lives. God had led the children of Israel to the Promised Land and years after the Israelites had lived in the land, their ungratefulness toward God became evident when they declared they wanted to be ruled by a king rather than a judge whom God had appointed over them. Samuel took it personally that he was being cancelled, but God pointed out to Samuel, that the people were rejecting God Himself, and not Samuel’s leadership. 1Sam. 8:7 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. 

     Someone might say, “How can you cancel God from your life when He has done so much for you?” We do not need to look far than to our own lives to see that we have done it on many occasions. Every time we willfully sin, we do it. Every time we reject the Word of the Lord that comes our way when we are in trouble, we do it. I have experienced this when I have been asked for help in different situations and when victory is just over the turbulent horizon, some of those being helped just cancel me out and say, “Thanks, I got this, you can leave me alone now,” and like that – Cancelled. I’m not looking for praise or validation that I, and I alone, got these souls through their mess because we all know it was God leading us through the circumstances together that brought the opportunity for victory – if the people continue in the Word. However, it can hit our soul very hard if we are not wearing the armour of God that protects us from all fiery darts regardless of where the darts came from.

     What I am pointing out, is that being cancelled is going to be part of life for those who serve in any capacity of ministry. Whether a pastor, minister, civil servant, politician, or medical practitioner – you will be rejected and cancelled by the very people you are helping. This is why we need to love the Lord more than the accolades of people because it is the love and joy of the Lord that will keep us in the strength and courage we need to finish what God has called us to do. The gratitude and the thank yous that come our way are nice and many times uplifting, but our real strength comes from God and Him only. The accolades of the crowd can lead people to start believing in their own press, and major missteps begin to happen when man’s ego becomes their god. Luke 6:26 Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers treated the false prophets in the same way.      

     Jesus had a similar event happen to Him as what happened to His Heavenly Father. Isa. 53:3a He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. God had been rejected and cancelled from a nation’s consciousness as He pointed out to Samuel. Similarly, one day Jesus is being hailed with shouts of, “Hosanna in the highest,” and not long after, the same people are screaming “Crucify Him to death!” Luke 23:21 But they shouted, saying, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” This is fickle behaviour for a people who claim to be following God. 

     Our stability in the faith comes from our ability to obey and stick with what the Holy Spirit is showing us through His Word. Our strength grows from the Lord’s approval and love that He lavishes upon us. Our lives become filled with grace, when we keep coming to God the Father for His mercy to be given to us and lived through, as we face all the hate the world freely gives out to all. Truly God is good. Let us not worry about being cancelled, but rather, let us trust God with all our hearts and He will give us His assurance and rest.