how we felt before leaving on this mission trip. Here is what I am expecting…
I can expect only that which is
promised in the Scriptures and obtained through prayer, for His words are true
and His promises are sure.
American lifestyle, my friends, my family, and the church that God has placed
around me, and dive headfirst into a global quest for the glory of God.
So, what am I thinking?
“Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers
or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the
gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and
brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and
in the age to come eternal life.’“
Mark 10:29-30
will lay my head each night will be replaced by the joy of being housed and
welcomed into the communities of believers spread abroad. I am expecting the relationships I form with
the family of God will grow much deeper than any biological relationship I have
ever experienced. I am convinced that any
persecution I might receive in this short life is no big thing compared to the
eternal glory that is to come.
‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Follow
me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.'”
I am thinking that
the potential pain of not being able to bury a loved one is a small loss compared
to the surpassing worth of knowing and following Christ Jesus my Lord.
“But whatever things were gain to
me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things
to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that
I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him,
not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of
faith, that I may know Him and the power of
His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His
death; in order that I may attain to the
resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or
have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for
which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not
regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting
what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for
the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. “
So, I gladly lay it all down. I will take up my cross and follow Him for
the prize of the upward call. As for expectations…
the great desire of my heart is to be
delighted in Him. Lucky for me, God has
already made me a promise in that regard.
give you the desires of your heart.”
