Forever a Foreigner

A missionary has come to visit.

They went to your home, your church, or your prayer group. They told stories. They spoke with passion about the work they are doing in distant lands. Their words stirred your spirit. You wept when you heard about a brother or sister in Christ’s situation in a foreign country.

Yes, missions is so important, you think to yourself. Maybe someday in the future, you might even consider going on a short-term missions trip.

“Brother missionary, what you’re doing is amazing. I could never do what you’re doing.”

“Do you have any financial needs?”

“How can we help?”

“Can we send so-and-so a gift?”

“What can we do?“

Your words are sincere; they come from your heart. You are ready to spend out of the little or much that God has given you.

Perhaps the missionary mentions a project that you can contribute to. You do so, and you feel glad to be able to give cheerfully to this cause. The act of helping financially satisfies that burning desire in your heart. You have done your part as a regular Christian, giving to missions. Until the next speaker moves your heart, life will continue as before.

Or perhaps the missionary turns you away. “We have no needs right now,” she says, “but you can pray about this.” You are disappointed; you wanted to take action. Prayer is important. You know this. And you will pray, you promise yourself. But you wanted to do something more. Oh, well. You pray when you can, and when you remember to, but the fire in your heart slowly dies away. Until the next speaker moves your heart, life will continue as before.

The missionary knows that this might be the extent of your zeal.

When you ask those questions and make those comments, the missionary might feel a certain sense of frustration.

Until the next speaker moves your heart, life will continue as before.

What did the missionary want to tell you?

Is this all you can think of to give?

God doesn’t want just your money.

He wants your life.

When missionaries speak about the need of the lost, we are speaking about the need for God’s people to lay down their lives daily for the work of the kingdom–the old, the young, the weak, and the strong.

We want you to respond. We need people on fire for God, who are ready to do whatever God calls them to do–in their homes, their churches, and in their towns, as well as in faraway places. We need people who are ready to lay down their lives before the Lord every day and go to their neighbor for the sake of his name. We need people who are willing to strive daily in prayer for the lost and for God’s laborers. We need people who are ready to go as soon as God opens the door.

“I could never do what you’re doing.” So many people say those words to us. Again and again, from church to church. Perhaps you have said them, and you meant well in doing so.

But who are we in your eyes?

We are weak. Unimportant. Afraid. Sickly. Often discouraged. Just like you. Without God we are nothing. Without him, we could never do what we are doing either.

The only Chosen One is the Christ, the Son of God. The hand of the Lord has done this (Job 12:9). We do nothing in our own strength, but God our King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth (Ps. 74:12).

When you said or thought those words, were you thinking little of God, as if he couldn’t use you? Or are you unwilling to be used?

Money is useful. We can use it to support gospel laborers and accomplish projects. Giving glorifies the Lord, and some people are greatly used of the Lord in this way.

But church buildings don’t manifest church people, and money can’t buy souls.

Money does not strengthen the young woman whose family hates her for betraying their traditional religious beliefs for Jesus. Money does not call the man who has turned away from God in bitterness to repent. Money cannot comfort your uncle’s grief over the loss of his son, or save that friend from the daily struggle to hold onto their faith in a heartbreaking family situation. Money does not preach the gospel. Money does not love the child whose father is in prison for murder. Money doesn’t love and grieve and weep and bleed for the lost.

Many people want to contribute to God’s kingdom, but they want to do so the easy way. Wrestling in prayer on a daily basis is hard. Opening your heart to be vulnerable and to love the unlovely is hard. Stepping out in faith is hard. Offering your life as a living sacrifice is hard.

God calls every believer to go and make disciples, to hold his people in their hearts. He calls us all to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice before the God who is a consuming fire. No one is exempt.

Don’t stop at financial giving! Don’t stop at a short missions trip once every few years!

Let it be your heart’s cry, to go to your neighbors, to your coworkers, to your children, and to your grandchildren. Go to your friends and to your enemies. Go wherever God calls you.

If you are someone who has had their spirit stirred, and you want to respond–

Let yourself be moved to action! Be moved, not only to the giving of your finances, but further!

Become an active part of God’s kingdom work, starting wherever you are to whatever lies ahead.