Patience.
It’s such a simple word, isn’t it?
Yet, it’s something that we all struggle with. Whether it’s being impatient about growing up, going to college, getting the right career, getting married, having a family.. the list continues. We all are impatient. Especially when it comes to something that we want.
Right now, for me, that looks like being impatient in the process of getting ready for the World Race. I want things to happen in my timing instead of God’s timing. That’s something I continue to remind myself, that I don’t need to try and rush this process of preparation. I don’t need to worry about when and where the funding will come from because God’s timing is the right timing and God has a plan throughout all of this.
I was listening to a sermon from my church from a few weeks ago when we had a guest speaker, David Sills. He was a missionary in Ecuador, and he is the founder and president of Reaching & Teaching International Ministries, as well as a missions professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He asked the question, “When God calls, how will you respond?”
He also said the following throughout his sermon, (my thoughts also included)
“In our world today, over 1/3 have not heard the gospel message. Every day on average 50,000 people die and enter into a Christless eternity. People will say that’s not fair, they never rejected Christ. Of course they didn’t, they never heard of Christ. Jesus said they are condemned, take them the gospel. Yet 2,000 years later, 1/3 of the people on this planet have never even heard that. Is he calling somebody here to go and bring the people the gospel message. In our country we have a trained Christian worker for every 235 people. When you leave this country that drops to 1 for every 450,000 people. 85% of pastors in this world have no training and no access to it. The life that you are living is not yours, don’t waste it on you. You have been bought with a price, and the one who bought you has said go.”
We are in need of people who are willing to leave their comfortable life and dedicate their life to serving God on the mission field. These pastors do not even have access to training.. yet in America we have an overabundance of training programs, seminaries, Bible colleges..
A friend of David Sills who has been a missionary in Northeast africa for over 20 years said, every person he has ever led to the Lord was martyred. The average life expectancy of a new believer is around 45 days. They know when they receive Christ that this is hard, but this is the only hope. The great commission is not an option for us to consider but a commandment for us to obey.
These people know that they are going to be persecuted, they know that life is not going to be easy but they TRUST in Jesus Christ. It is amazing to hear of the faith of other believers. Should that not encourage each and every one of us? Imagine, 45 days, that’s all, after committing your life to the Lord. We need to be sharing the gospel.
Jim Elliot asked, “Are you willing to lie in some native hut and die of a disease that American doctors have never even heard of?”
Spurgeon said, “Every Christian here is either a missionary or an imposter.”
This does not mean that all of us have to go overseas or to another country. There are people all around us who need to hear the gospel, whether that is friends, coworkers, neighbors, or even family members. We NEED to step outside our comfort zone and talk about Jesus. We have this amazing knowledge of how we can spend eternity in heaven, yet we tend to keep it to ourselves…
God is calling me. People ask me why would you do the World Race? or 11 months is such a long time, are you sure this is the right trip? etc.. I am going to share the good news of the gospel with those who may have never heard it, to share the love of Jesus Christ with orphans, widows, the poor, anyone and everyone. Why should I stay here and live my “normal” life and not step outside my comfort zone? Of course there are many ways to do that, here as well, in which I strive to grow in. But, I am going on a journey, living out of a backpack, to be uncomfortable for the name of my Savior. I don’t want a “normal” life. I don’t want to waste my life on myself. I want to be sold out for Christ.
I ask that you would partner with me on this journey and please continue to pray for me and the rest of the individuals who will be on this trip as well.
Matthew 16:24-26
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?”
