Considering Missions?Egzanp

Jesus Comes Before Family, Before Our Own Lives
A seminary professor once joked that it is amazing how often God calls pastors to churches within 15 minutes of their in-laws’ house. Of all of the challenges of missions, one of the hardest is feeling guilt that comes from leaving friends and family. Sometimes these feelings of guilt arise in spite of the encouraging family members that send us off. But other times our own families can be the greatest discouragement.

Mothers and fathers will remind us of their love for their grandchildren, or of how all their friends’ children have chosen to “bloom where they are planted.” So, the missionary in many ways has to make a choice between family and the Great Commission. 

Sometimes the question is less about family and more about personal fulfillment. While there are some who would feel happiest living in a village in Papua New Guinea, most of us have become accustomed to life in a Western country. Most missionaries I have met do not like snakes in their house or killing cockroaches.

During his ministry, Jesus called men and women to follow him and each one of them had to walk away from life as they knew it. For the disciples who followed him wherever he went, the cost was great. Peter and Andrew left their father and their nets, and later Peter said, “See we have left everything and followed you” (Matthew 19:27).

Jesus has called all of us to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow him. Though it is difficult (and for some, the most difficult aspect of missions), leaving family to follow Christ is the norm, not the exception. Pray for grace to love Christ more than family, and more than your own life. 

Praise the Lord for…

· the fact that he is worthy of walking away from everything to follow.

· giving us so much more than we could ever give up.

Pray that…

· you would value Christ more than anything else in your life, and even more than your life itself.

· God would lead you to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel.