We can be too stressed to listen and hear his voice.
But why the stress? Why the preoccupation with the impossibility of the situation? Isn’t it rooted in an unspoken lack of trust in the One who stands above all things?
And how can we expect to receive counsel and answers, or action and solutions from someone that we don’t trust.
Without faith, it’s impossible to communicate with and relate to God.
And so, the first, biggest, and most crucial assignment in everything we do is to be in the position described in Psalm 131:
“I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.” (Psalm 131)
The child is too simple to be filled with doubt or accusations about the inability of the mother to provide, care, and make sure that everything will work out fine.
We could do with a good dose of that childlike innocence.
When we take the position of the resting, trusting child, we’ll have an open mind to hear his voice.
These are the simple terms that the apostles used to describe what today we call “missions.” They were witnesses of Christ, messengers of Christ, servants and ambassadors of Christ. They were minister’s of God’s reconciliation in Christ.
The work, the salvation, and the church is his. He won’t give his glory to another.
The work of Christ: it’s a precious spiritual commodity that he gives out to us. We can’t package it, methodize it, or pay people to do it. We can’t reproduce it with human strength, resources, or ingenuity.
We can only get it from him, and we can only do it with him.
He is the vision, he is the fuel, and his glory is the result.
It’s simply, “the work of Christ.”
The challenge in this thing we call missions, is to remember that.
“He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” (Colossians 1:28)