Encouragement
Living the life of a missionary is never easy. For Dave, it was never a question of easy or hard but a question of should or should not. He chose the less-traveled path of a missionary because he knew it was what he was called to. In 10 years, God had taken Dave to many countries, served in various roles, preached to many people and see many souls come to Christ. Yet he does not own a penny. All Dave ever had was provided by God either through generosity or some miraculous means. However, it's always easier to do ministry outside compare to home.
Ever since Dave left his $8,000 per month salary to serve God full-time, his mother had never stopped worrying about his future.
"Dave, how are you going to survive every month without a pay check?"
"Don't worry mum, God always provides for me", is the only lame-sounding but true-to-his-soul answer he could give to her.
"What about your future? What about when you have a wife and kids? Are you going to penniless your whole life? You won't have a future if you keep going like this", said Dave's mother in a very concerned tone.
"Don't worry mum, ok. Everything will be fine. I love you. Gotta go." Click went the phone.
Dave had no answer except the one he had already given. Even he sometimes doubted God's goodness in providing for his future family. "If I don't eat, I can still survive to glorify God. If I have to sleep on the ground, I can still use my body to praise His name", thought Dave "but not my wife and kids."
"Lord, what is Your will? I can't possibly stand to watch my future wife and kids suffer or be in want. You made me a man and that means that I also have to be a provider for my family. Lord God Almighty, I give myself to you. Please give me the grace to continue to serve You". Dave prostrated himself on the floor weeping.
And in his sorrow and worry for the future, a brand new thought came to his mind as though a new bulb got turned on. Suddenly, even though he still wasn't sure, he knew in his heart that it WAS going to be okay. God indeed would take care of all his needs and including his future family. It was such a simple thought but it blew his mind and he could help turning from sadness to joyful thanksgiving. He quickly wrote it down so as to not forget this great truth. Dave opened his Bible to where the verse was located and carefully underlined it and slip the piece of paper into its pages.
On the paper, it simply wrote in his handwriting, "You must not look at your future circumstances with your present lenses. The future could only be see through My eyes. And My eyes and My thoughts are good to you - Jeremiah 29:11"
All throughout the Bible, God constantly reminds us that He is a good God not only of the present but also of our futures. But with our limited vision, we cannot see far and often misunderstand our current situation to be constant all throughout our lives. How often have you heard people commenting, "If you're poor not, you will ALWAYS be poor", "You'll never make it in life, you failure", etc...
The reason we have a hope is because we have a God who knows and wants to shape our future to be one of tremendous blessing and joy.
I am currently facing a great difficult much like Dave and if you are also facing one, I urge you, brother/sister, not to give up. Whatever we are facing now is only temporary. He is faithful and will always come to the rescue. But in the mean time, we just need to persevere through and trust in His perfect and timely provision.
God bless,
Edwin Chia
[email protected]
Comments/feedback appreciated.
If you would like to contact me, please feel free to email me.
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Be careful with some sentences that might have multiple meanings. For example this line: God had taken Dave to many countries, served in various roles,
initially sounds like God served in various countries. You could fix it like this: God had taken him to many countries where Dave served in various roles,
This is tiny but when using Mum as a name make sure it starts with a capital M. If you put a qualifier in front like my or Dave's then it's lowercase.
I really like the way you deliver your messages. It is gentle and kind and doesn't come off as too preachy. That's not always easy to do, but you make it look so. Great inspirational writing!