I just want to say that I will always have great respect for those who live out God's calling. I want to support missions with everything I have. Getting more into missions, I've come to realize, isn't all about going to a foreign country and simply seeing hurting people and helping them. It's about falling desperately in love with God's people and praying continuously that God will help you be the hands and feet to serve them and show them the love and care of Jesus. It's about acting on God's calling and telling everybody about the Savior, hoping to plant a seed for God to water and nurture in people's lives. Here are a few reminders I would like to remember as I seek the call to ministry God has put on my heart as well as the hearts of others.
"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here I am, send me!'" (Isaiah 6:8).
This verse is very powerful. Although it isn't subject to people who are righteous and believe that they will bring Jesus' saving grace to every person, it does call for people who are willing to serve God and volunteer to be the people who tell everyone about Him.
As I follow God's will for my life and pursue missions, I want to remember God's love for me and His protection over my life. Jeremiah 29: 11-14 tells me, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord, 'and I will bring you back from captivity...'" I want to remember that it is God who will bring me back into His care only when I seek Him fully.
"The call of missions is to love Jesus in such a way that you don't need a specific event or place to witness but that from a heart desiring to see humanity saved, we live every single moment committed to being witnesses of the gospel and it's transforming power," (Anthony Jermaine).
I want to love without anything getting in the way. I want to serve without a single complaint. And I want to follow God's heart and not look back.
A song that helped me deepen my desire for missions is Called Me Higher by All Sons and Daughters. One part goes like this, "But You have called me higher, You have called me deeper, and I'll go where You will lead me Lord." It is a call to God saying that we could just sit around and wait for things to happen, but we have been called to be more than people who wait. We have been called to go higher and deeper and to follow God, and that's what I intend to do.
"He came to seek and save the lost," (Luke 19:10). Jesus was sent to do just that, and as we are called to be like Christ, we must also seek and save the lost. Granted, only God can save the people, we must bear the message of Jesus being the Savior.
"I have learned that I will not change the world. Jesus will do that. I can, however, change the world for one person. So I keep stopping and loving one person at a time. Because this is my call as a Christian," (Katie Davis). Katie Davis is a woman and missionary I have recently come to know of, but I admire her so much. She went to Uganda to serve during her gap year after high school and ended up staying there and adopting 14 little, native girls and she founded a missionary organization. If I could pack it all up and follow God like that, I would.
As we all follow God's plans for our lives and keep our trust and hope in Him, there is nothing we can't accomplish. Whether we are called to serve in our hometown, or called to a foreign land, may we all keep pursuing Jesus, relentlessly. May our hearts never grow cold and bitter towards Him and may we always keep a loving attitude towards all of His people.
To the person who is thinking of missions, planning a mission, on a mission, or who has returned from a mission, I applaud you. Stay faithful in God's plan for your life. Lay all of your fears and doubts at the feet of Jesus and ask Him to be with you and to keep filling your life so that you may fill the lives of others.
"Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love," (Mother Teresa).
