Are we the "little children" of God, or do we believe we are qualified and capable of helping Him? What little child is a genuine helper to adults? Very few little children are capable of helping adults, and that is one reason God presents little children as spiritual role models for believers. We are most capable before God when we rely on Him as little children, rather than on our talents or abilities as His helpers. (Mark 10:14)
It takes genuine "little children" to be available for God to do His most important work through them. This is a foreign concept to most people, and even to many believers who insist on holding what we perceive as our human assets or attributes up to God as a testament to our Kingdom value. Truthfully, God sees nothing of value in our human nature or capability, but only in our humility, surrender, and obedience as His little children. (Luke 10:21)
So how will we go about the Lord's business this day? Will we be like a little child, holding on tightly to our Father's hand, or the self-confident adult only reaching for God's hand when we come to the end or ourselves?
Onward Christian soldiers!
Bob Benson
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from My Utmost For His Highest. . .
October 26
What is a Missionary?
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front—to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him—to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ—"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . ." ( Matthew 28:19 ).
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, "What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!" But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were "foolish" enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment.
Amen!
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." Matthew 16:24
