The Hard Work of Missions

I hear this every where I go, "Bobby, I feel God calling me, I just don't know exactly what he wants." Sometimes it sound like this, "I know that what I'm doing is not fulfilling. It's not that I don't love my church or my life, it's just that God has put in me a burden, a burden that is not yet fulfilled."

So what do you do?

Prov 16:9 says, The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

What this verse says to me along with many others is that the Lord is "giving me the desires of my heart", burdening me, urging me, making me dissatisfied with the present, uprooting me and at the same time he is making me trust him for what to do next, "establishing my steps."

So how do you know the steps? How do you know what's next?

It usually comes in an opportunity, a door the Lord opens for us, for you, something simple, something maybe even too simple, trite, but meaningful. You like it, it fits, it excites you, but... "is this really it?"

Col. 4:5 "make the most of every opportunity..." that's what God says, that's what we do. The opportunity is the step that the Lord establishes or directs. What happens next is very cool. God takes that step and opens up to you your way, your next chapter, your next phase. Maybe it's school or an environment that is simply meant for your training, maybe it is something to purify you and cause you to trust God more like a sickness or a job loss or a failure, and maybe it's a big break.

But whatever it is, you come to it by seizing the opportunity that is before you that is in line with the burden of your heart and voila, God does the rest.

And that's the hardest work we do. It is trusting that Jesus really is in charge of the desires of my heart, that he really directs my steps, that he really opens doors and that I can confidently, full of faith and without doubting take that step know God's plan for me right now.

Your turn. Take the step.

BC