This morning the guest preacher told our congregation when we engage in risky kingdom work we should expect to succeed. His phrase was actually “You should expect to succeed, and you should expect to suffer.”
It’s worth it.
I risked everything to move to Germany and then to move to New Zealand, and I’ve seen God bless my socks off as young people engage with Jesus and have their lives transformed, as MY life is transformed to make me more like Jesus. I also broke my back and have had a whole lot of spiritual attack. This week in particular had some heavy stuff thrown at me, and you know what, I laughed in the devil’s face as I came back with prayer warriors covering me and praying for my leaders and my young people.
There were probably fifteen people praying over an email I sent on Friday morning and a follow up text today – this could be life altering for a young person, and I’m not even joking when I say how serious I took praying over this text to get a kid signed up for camp and the emotional response of a simple “I’ll do it right now” (as of posting this, the kid isn’t signed up for Easter Camp, but this is after months of trying to get in touch with this caregiver and the first response I’ve gotten, so join the prayer team right now!).
When I asked for some extra prayer this week, my friend Hannah said it seems like the devil is getting desperate to stop us and throwing all kinds of stuff at us, but there are young people who I believe will have their lives transformed by Jesus because I’m not giving up or backing down from a hard conversation or being persistent in reaching out to people. I was talking to JC this afternoon about how I so strongly believe these lives can be radically different when they choose to follow Jesus and how young people today deserve a concrete choice. I’ve been heartbroken over how many peers and youth I’ve watched walk away from broad strokes of Christian culture because they’d never been transformed by Jesus deep in their own lives.
I live differently because of Jesus. By the grace of God, I live in a country where I’m free to broadcast that and can write openly about it on the internet. Our speaker shared with our church this morning about people who were so transformed they put their lives at risk to share that with others. I’m not likely to be killed, but I can promise you the sacrifices I’ve made are more than a little inconvenienced for the Gospel. I get the suffering stuff. This week I sat with God’s conversation with Ananias about Paul after his conversion. God tells this guy he’s about to show Paul “how much he must suffer for my name.”
It’s worth it.
Hands down, no regrets. Suffering sucks, but, man, the success of seeing a young person give their life to Jesus and live all in for him. Nothing beats that.
This is a real battle. Playing for keeps. I like that wording from Ephesians 6 in the Message translation (which I just discovered is the verse of the day on BibleGateway when I went to copy the text). It says, “And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no weekend war that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.“
After some of that spiritual battle, I followed up with a few praying friends, and I reiterated that the devil messed with the wrong person on this. I won’t let any of my leaders or youth be sacrificed, and I’m reignited in my prayers for many of my other young people and peers who I care for deeply. My life is different because of Jesus, and Jesus can actually change your life too. This isn’t a soft serve “God I can lead around” as the Newsboys would say.
Friday night I invited the legend Allen Hou to share with my youth group, and the message he prepared was so solid as he challenged them to obey God. He brought this brilliant quote: There is a God we want, and there is a God who is. They are not the same God. The turning point of our lives is when we stop seeking the God we want and start seeking the God who is.
Your choice.
