Before You GoSample

Losing to God and Winning a Victory

It frequently happens on a short-term mission team: for no obvious reason, two people on the team have very different experiences. Everyone completed the same application and received the same immunizations. They prepared, prayed, traveled, stayed in the same housing with the same showers, rode the same buses or vans, and ate the same food.

But look! One is having the time of their life. The other? Miserable as can be.

How can this be? Why does one have the grace to endure the new culture and the other doesn’t? Why does one enjoy the opportunity to relate to other teammates and the other doesn’t?

The answer to each of those questions is the same: pride! The miserable one is filled with it; the other is not. The happy ones have “lost to God” intentionally, surrendering preconceived ideas and desires to the Lord, and therefore received the grace of God to enjoy whatever comes. The prideful ones fight for their own desires and preferences—a losing battle, by the way. Today’s Bible verse is clear: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Which way this mission trip goes for you will depend on you. Someone once said that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you respond. Only you can choose your response. Will you lay down your pride and lose your preferences to the Lord or hold on to your desires, get frustrated, and fight against Him?

Go Further: Do you get easily frustrated at school, work, or home if things aren’t going your way? Do anger issues pop up from time to time? Changing locations to another country won’t change you. Now is a great time to pray a prayer of surrender that will set you up for a great mission experience and become a life-giving practice for daily living.

Prayer: Lord, I recognize that You rule over the affairs of this mission, so I make a willful decision to embrace with thanksgiving the circumstance of this outreach. I humble myself before You and surrender my independence and right to “self-rule.” I don’t want to find myself fighting against You; I want to cooperate with Your provision, schedule, and plans for me.