The Joy of Labouring
By Paul Bailey, Melbourne Labouring Community. This article was first published in our newsletter, Compass, Autumn 2026.
The Great Commission and the call of sending out labourers into the harvest has been echoed from pulpits for centuries. As each generation pleads these causes, I imagine the same statements are made in response: “The labourers are few”, “I don’t know how to get started”, “I can go, I can labour,” “I see fruit in my labouring,” “I’m burnt out”, “It’s too hard” “it’s just not for me”, “I have laboured, someone else can do it”. As scripture forewarns, there is nothing new under the sun. Imagine the burden every generation has felt hearing the same thing from the pulpit. Each labourer weary from the good work, begging for more labourers. How do we who are already labouring persevere through the weariness? How do we who maybe haven’t begun get started? How do we become a solution to Christ’s statement, “The labourers are few”? There are many ways to answer this question, so I’ve decided to take them from the words of David.
The restoration of [our] joy in the gospel … fuels [our] labouring …
In the middle of David’s prayer of confession in Psalm 51:12b, we find a simple yet profound line, “restore to me the joy of your salvation”. Now this restoration isn’t asking for him to be born again or to be brought from death to life, lost then found in the terms of his salvation. But rather, David acknowledges that he has gone astray and has not found joy in the hope that is God, who has already redeemed his soul from eternal judgment. It is an acknowledgement that his focus had changed from God to something else. As David prays this, he continues in Psalm 51:13, “Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you”. When his joy is returned, then (meaning when this happens) he will declare the gospel – making known to sinners their ways and urging them to return to God. The restoration of his joy in the gospel and his own salvation fuels his labouring and his return to proclaiming that same gospel.
The gospel is, was and always will be the greatest message of all time. A thrice-Holy God, whose perfection is incomprehensible and whose wrath is being stored up against sinners due to His divine justice, sends His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to walk this earth and deal with all temptations, trials and sufferings. Yet, unlike us, Christ lives righteously and perfectly according to God’s Holy Law and dies on a cross. God’s divine justice is then unleashed on Jesus, bearing and taking the punishment we deserve, the stored-up wrath of God, and in exchange we are credited with His righteousness. We now find ourselves forgiven of sins, our debt wiped clean, and given eternal life in heaven with God. This is the message which saved us in the first place, yet it must also be the message that we daily live by. This gospel is not a door we enter through and live on the other side; we never move past it. Rather, it’s the centrepiece of the joy we need for labouring for a lifetime.
This gospel … is the centrepiece of the joy we need for labouring for a lifetime.
Now stop. Before you continue reading, answer these questions. Who were you before Christ made you His own? What was your life like before you were purchased by His blood and redeemed? How are you applying His Gospel to your life daily, knowing you sin daily? Have you unknowingly slipped back into trusting your good works? Has that become your focus?
When we grow daily in the reality that the gospel is the centrepiece of joy, Christ becomes sweeter to our lives, and the joy ever increasing. Surely in this life, we will experience seasons of fruit which bring joy in our harvest. Yet as this life goes on, we will experience seasons of despair and drought. Our circumstances will ever shift, yet our eyes must stay fixed on Christ. Joy is something fixed on the truth that comes from the gospel. The joy of your salvation! Saved and redeemed. We come to Christ weak, poor and needy; He brings joy. We display fruit, experience blessings; He again brings joy. We, who are in a deep sense of gratitude, live out of this motivation that comes from the gospel of hope found in Jesus Christ, the steadfast anchor for our souls.
Christ is our Hope, and Christ is our Joy who has given us our salvation. If you are a weary labourer, look to the gospel and ask God to restore to you this joy of His salvation. If you have yet to begin labouring, you too should look to Christ and His redeeming love – that it would bring you joy, and stir your heart to proclaim to sinners that there is hope in Christ, and that they too would experience the joy of His salvation.
Paul Bailey leads the student ministry work at Monash University. If you would like to know more about &/or would prayerfully like to consider supporting Paul and his ministry, visit his Profile Page.
We are praying for more labourers to join our team. If you are interested or would like to know more, please contact us at [email protected].
The Source of All Joy
From Scott To You
Dear Friend,
French mathematician and follower of Christ, Blaise Pascal, wrote: “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end … The will never takes the least step but to this object.” Deep within all our souls is a craving for satisfaction and joy because we were made for it. We yearn for it and seek it, giving all we have to posses it. Yet regrettably for many the hunt never ends, as path after path turns cold. In Psalm 16:11, David reveals the path to joy saying, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
God Himself is the source of all joy. He is not the best in a list of choices or of better value than other sources — He is the only source of joy. Without Him, joy does not exist and those who seek to find it on their own, in anything else, find only emptiness, thirst and multiplying sorrows (Jer 2:11-14; Ps 16:4).
But in His grace, and according with His pleasure, God has made known to us a path of life, paved with the atoning death and victorious resurrection of Jesus. His path leads us back to the Father’s glorious presence and loving embrace where we are enveloped in the joy found in Him. A joy that is full and complete, and deeply satisfying to our souls.
Restored to God’s joy-filled presence and His glorious purposes, we rejoice in embracing His will, eager to do all that He asks, wherever He leads, driven by desire and delight (Ps 40:8). His joy carries us forward and sustains us, giving us strength to advance the gospel into the nations. In this labour we endure and persevere through every difficulty, trial and form of suffering for the joy set before us, just like Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb 12:2). So that just as we have been reconciled to Him, we become reconcilers to the world, Ambassadors for Christ, imploring them on Christ’s behalf to be reconciled to God and embrace the fullness of joy found in His presence. (2 Cor 5:18-20)
Labouring together,
Featured image of silhouette of man with arms raised by Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash.
Your Questions Answered: What Feeds Your Joy?
Christine Norrie is a friend of the Australian Navigators. She is a wife and a mother of two, who delights in coordinating the kids ministry at her church, teaching SRE at a local school, and homeschooling her 11-year-old son. She put her faith in Jesus as a little person and continues to be challenged and encouraged in her faith.
Q: What feeds your joy?
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Get to Know Lashan
Lashan Wijesingha has been a part of our Melbourne Labouring Community for a number of years, journeying alongside our student ministry team as well as training in leadership. We asked him about his relationship with Jesus and his source of joy.
How did you come into relationship with Jesus?
I grew up in a non-Christian home, but my older brother entered into communion with Christ. Through his faithful witness and persistent evangelism to our family, I began reading the Scriptures for myself and came to know who Jesus truly is. I accepted Christ as my Savior toward the end of high school, and since that moment, I have followed Him unashamedly, committed to living under His Lordship.
How did you come to be involved with the Australian Navigators, and how has that community helped you grow?
I came to be involved when Paul, a Navs staff worker at Monash, visited my church. I reached out to learn more about the Navigators as one of the Christian ‘clubs’ on campus. Being part of the Navigators has profoundly challenged my understanding of Scripture, shaped my priorities in discipleship, and taught me the practices of true godliness. I have learned how to shepherd others faithfully and to orient my own life around the pursuit of Christ above all else.
What feeds your joy in the labouring?
My joy in labouring comes from knowing that it is not in vain, for it bears eternal fruit. My delight is seeing people become solid in Christ, growing in knowledge and obedience to Him. I labour so that others might know Jesus as I know Him – the sovereign Lord who condescended in humility, lived a perfect life, died a perfect and pleasing death to God, and rescued a people for Himself. Christ is of immeasurable worth; He is my light, my peace, my joy, and my unshakable foundation. I choose Him above all worldly pursuits.
Lashan (front, 3rd from right) with Paul (front, left) with some of their Melbourne crew. Photo: supplied.
What has helped sustain you in the challenging work of labouring?
I am sustained by the truth that the Lord Himself is at work through my efforts. The Spirit strengthens me, Scripture guides me, and the promise of eternal fruit reminds me that no labour in His name is wasted. God has graciously blessed me with believers who encourage and assist me daily – people with whom I can share my struggles at both church and Navs. He has given me friends who understand my journey and can bear the burdens of ministry alongside me.
Why do you think we should have joy in persevering and labouring, particularly in striving to reach the nations?
We should have joy in persevering and labouring because the work of the gospel is never in vain. Every faithful effort participates in God’s sovereign plan to build His church and glorify His name among all nations. To labour faithfully, even amid trials, is to see souls drawn to Christ – the highest reward imaginable, far surpassing any earthly success. The joy of seeing lives transformed and the kingdom expanded is an eternal delight that fuels perseverance and steadfast devotion.
