Seeking God's calling
"Your understanding of Latin American culture and global missions will
deepen as you receive cross-cultural training and mentoring. You will be
challenged to broaden your ability to communicate your faith & better
understand God's call upon your life."
Over the past few months I have really learned the value of identifying your gifts, passions, and talents and asking the Lord to reveal to you, in His timing, these unique traits that he has given you to use in building His Kingdom. At first I thought I had to find out exactly where and to what God is calling me for my life, but I learned something quite different after reading through a great book called The Finishers by Roger Hershey and Jason Weimer (I recommend anyone who has a heart for missions to go and buy this book ASAP because there are some truths and insights that really transformed my thinking and drew me closer to the Lord in this book). One of the things that Roger Hershey said in the book that really transformed my thinking was, "Let me reiterate my definition of calling: my unique way of serving Christ in the world and in the Church by being who He has created me to be. It's not about a career or an occupation; it's not about what we do. It can be expressed many different ways, and we ought to do so while seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness, obeying His clearly stated commands. As Finishers, I encourage you to express your calling with a world-Christian mindset- living in such a way so that the nations can be blessed and the work of the gospel can be finished."
I am really looking forward to developing my understanding of God's call on my life, especially in the context of global missions. We received our information packets for the summer program in the mail a couple of weeks ago and I found out that I should prepare my testimony in Spanish and practice giving it. They also gave us a list of Bible verses in Spanish to memorize before we get there so we can start preparing to be equipped for evangelism in Mexico. I think I never really thought about it before they gave us these instructions, but some nervousness certainly hit me when I realized I would be sharing my faith in another language. I already get somewhat nervous sharing the gospel in English, so how much more challenging will this be in Spanish! But I am excited deep down because I know this will only strengthen me as a laborer for Christ and grow my relationship with the Lord as I learn how to trust Him even more when I experience the language and cultural barriers that must be overcome in addition to whatever other barriers in sharing the gospel with the lost and broken in Mexico City.
The following is one of my favorite passages of scripture as it has really guided me through my past couple of years at college, and I know this will continue to be a source of comfort and encouragement as I go into this next season in Mexico City:
His
divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness,
through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very
great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine
nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of
sinful desire. For
this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and
virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with
self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with
godliness, and
godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are
increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so
nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former
sins. Therefore,
brothers,be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and
election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided
for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ.
-2 Peter 1:3-11
