Purpose Driven Life - Day 36

 

Made for a Mission

You were made for a mission.

God is at work in the world, and He wants you to join Him.  This assignment is called your mission.  God wants you to have both a ministry in the Body of Christ and a mission in the world.  Your ministry is your service to believers, and your mission is your service to unbelievers. 

Being a Christian includes being sent into the world as a representative of Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."  The mission Jesus had while on earth is now our mission.  What is that mission?  Introducing people to God.  We are the messengers of God's love and purposes to the world.

THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR MISSION

Your mission is a continuation of Jesus' mission on earth.  Jesus calls us not only to come to him, but to go for him.  In the Great Commission Jesus said, "Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples.  Baptise them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you."  This commission was given to every follower of Jesus, not to pastors and missionaries alone.  These words of Jesus are not the Great Suggestion.  You are the only Christian some people will ever know, and your mission is to share Jesus with them.

Your mission is a wonderful privilege.  Although it is a big responsibility, it is also an incredible honour to be used by God.  Your mission involves two great privileges:  working with God and representing Him.  We get to partner with God in the building of His Kingdom!

Telling others how they can have eternal life is the greatest thing you can do for them.  One problem long-term Christians have is that they forget how hopeless it felt to be without Christ.  We must remember that no matter how contented or successful people appear to be, without Christ they are hopelessly lost and headed for eternal separation from God.  Everybody needs Jesus.

Your mission has eternal significance.  It will impact the eternal destiny of other people.  We will have all of eternity to celebrate with those we have brought to Jesus, but we only have our lifetime in which to reach them.  God wants you to share the Good News where you are.  As a student, mother, preschool teacher, salesman, or manager or whatever you do, you should continually look for people God places in your path with whom you can share the Gospel.

Your mission gives your life meaning.  There are people on this planet whom only you will be able to reach, because of where you live and what God has made you to be.  If just one person will be in heaven because of you, your life will have made a difference for eternity.  Start looking around at your personal mission field and pray, "God, who have you put in my life for me to tell about Jesus?"

God's timetable for history's conclusion is connected to the completion of our commission.  Today there's a growing interest in the second coming of Christ and the end of the world.  When the disciples wanted to talk about prophecy, Jesus quickly switched the conversation to evangelism.  He wanted them to concentrate on their mission in the world.  He said in essence, "The details of my return are none of your business.  What is your business is the mission I've given you.  Focus on that."

WHAT IT COSTS TO FULFILL YOUR MISSION

To fulfill your mission will require that you abandon your agenda and accept God's agenda for your life.  You yield your rights, expectations, dreams, plans, and ambitions to Him.  You stop praying selfish prayers like "God bless what I want to do."  Instead you pray, "God help me to do what you're blessing!" 

ONE MORE FOR JESUS

If you want to be used by God, you must care about what God cares about; what He cares about most is the redemption of the people He made.  He wants His lost children found!  Nothing matters more to God; the Cross proves that.  I pray that you will always be on the lookout to reach "one more for Jesus" so that when you stand before God one day, you can say, "Mission accomplished!"

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DAY THIRTY-SIX

THINKING ABOUT MY PURPOSE

Point to Ponder:  I was made for a mission.

Verse to Remember:  "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)

Question to Consider:  What fears have kept me from fulfilling the mission God made me to accomplish?  What keeps me from telling others the Good News?