A discouraged minister once dreamed that he was standing on the top of a great granite rock, trying to break it with a pickaxe. Hour after hour he worked on with no result. At last he said; “It is useless; I will stop.”

Suddenly a man stood by him and asked, “Were you not allotted this task? and if so, why are you going to abandon it?”

“My work is in vain; I can make no impression on the granite,” was the minister’s reply.

Then the stranger solemnly replied, “That is nothing to you; your duty is to pick, whether the rock yields or no. The work is yours, the results are in other hands; work on.”

In his dream the minister saw himself setting out anew his labor, and at his first blow the rock flew into hundreds of pieces.

“And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” – Mark 13:13

*Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.