Day Thirty Six

Day 36

Made for a Mission

“The best use of your Life is to spend it on something that outlasts it”

One day a young boy set out for school but never arrived. The school called to see where he was and why he wasn’t in school that day; His father said he had left at his regular time as he did every day. Worried what happened to his son, he got in his car and began to drive the route his son walked to see if he could find him but he wasn’t anywhere to be found? He called the police and they set up a search party and soon the whole town was looking for his son. They would not stop until the lost boy was found again. The father never gave up hope that his son would soon be with him again. He knew that his neighbors would not stop until his son was found because they also loved him and his son.

So it is the same with God and us. Unbelievers are like the lost son in the story above. And all our neighbors are all the Christians in the world who God has called to help Him find all the sons that are lost in the world because God is frantically looking to get them back to Him. God needs our help in finding them. This is all God is concerned about as He sits up in heaven, working in our lives to get us to a place where we can be instruments of His purpose to fulfill His purpose in us, to make us more like His son Jesus so we can do what His son Jesus did while He was here on earth. Each one of us individually He is shaping and molding to become more and more into the character of His son, one day at a time, one feeling at a time, restoring us from one hurt at a time, one broken relationship at a time, so we can be used in one ministry at a time. He has given us each talents and abilities to be used in specific ways, placed us in specific locations and places that are needed so we can be near the right individuals He wants us to reach because it is only us that can that reach these individuals. When God brings certain people into our lives, it is for a reason and for His purpose. There is always a reason why they are there. They just didn’t show up out of the blue. God brought them there. You are not in line behind them by accident. They are not your neighbors because the manager rented them the apartment next to you. They are not your co-workers because someone else hired them. When we understand this, that God has the control and does the behind the scenes work for us, we realize that half the work is already done for us, and we just need to finish what He has already started for us. It is like a salesman walking in a place that has already been primed ready to buy something; they are just waiting for the guy to come in with the product. They may not say YES right away, but eventually they will bite. You may just need to sharpen you salesmanship skills a little, find what works for you.

How do you develop this desire to reach those around you? Pray, always pray first. Second you need to have a love for people. A strong desire to care about the people that God puts in your life daily. To be able to have genuine concern for those around you and see them not only as just people in your life but as people that you want to spend eternity with. I heard a saying once that I think really applies well to the motivation and desire in people to be able to share their lives with others. “Those who have been forgiven little love little, and those who have been forgiven much, love much”. Now this isn’t always true is all circumstances because I know many people who have lived wonderful lives that have great big hearts for people. But I have also seen people who have lived very hard lives, that have gone through very many difficult times, have had many things to overcome, me included, that because of these hurdles to overcome have developed a greater love for mankind than the one they started out life with in the first place. God through their experiences has taught them how to love the unlovable whereas a lot of people just don’t know how to approach or reach them. We, I were these people at one time in our lives.

It takes a long time, and sometimes people never get to a place in their lives where they realize that reaching the world around them up and above and beyond their everyday jobs and responsibilities is what they were created to do. Between taking care of their families, going to work, paying the bills, spending a few hours in church on Sunday, who has time for much anything else? Maybe we should leave it all up to the single people. They must have more time on their hands right? Jesus was single anyway. Be more like Jesus the bible says. And go out and get twelve good friends to follow you around to lend you a hand with what ever you need done. Run your errands and wash your feet and hair. Fix your meals for you then you will have time. Ok maybe this is the wrong way to go about it, it would be nice but it isn’t reality. God gave all of us a personality to use in someway that will and can affect others in a different way so that we can be used to share our own lives and experiences with others. God has given us all experiences to be used that will reach others in some way. It is up to us to share them. To stay silent is the crime. To not tell others what God did in our lives is hiding His truths.

Someone in my life right now grew up with someone putting a lot of bad feelings and bad teachings towards the bible in his mind. He really doesn’t trust the bible as having any truths in it for the moment. How to get him to a place to trust in anything it says is going to be a challenge for me. So what I have asked him to do for the moment is just rely on what he sees in me. (this really puts a pressure on me doesn’t it?) Let me be the example of what you believe someone that believes in Christ is. Instead of me showing you what it means to be a Christian is by showing it to you in the bible, watch my life everyday, you are living with me. See how I treat you. See how I have treated you. See how I treat those around me. Watch how I live my life and compare it to how you know others that you have seen live theirs. Then every once in a while I will open up the bible and show you something that goes along with what I am doing or saying and see if it doesn’t match up with something you are seeing me doing or living. Maybe this will be a way to reach him and get him to understand that what he has heard or read or been taught in the past maybe wasn’t the right thing in the first place. Before we can preach the word of God we have to live the word of God. And we can’t live the word of God if the word of God isn’t in us.