You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. – James 4:2-3
I read a story today about two missionary couples. Both from Sweden. I encourage you to read the full story, but a brief synopsis is that they moved to the Congo as missionaries in 1921 to spread the word of the gospel, but after several months there, the challenges and seemingly lack of fruit led one of the couples to leave. There was only one boy in the entire village they were able to share the gospel with and the whole rest of the village seemed to hate them. They felt like they weren’t having an impact.
The other couple remained there and of all things became pregnant with their second child. Through complications, the mother died not long after the birth and something snapped in the father. He went to the mission station, left his newborn daughter with the family who had left the field before them. He and his son went back to Sweden.
Soon after, this couple, within a few days of each other, both died and the little child who was welcomed into an American couple’s arms. They moved back to the states with their new daughter and led ministry while in the states.
Years later, back in America, this girl had grown up and she saw in a magazine a story about a women.
SVEA FLOOD.
This was the unmistakable name of her mother.
She learned from the article that the one little boy that Svea had been able to share the gospel with ended up becoming a leader in the community they were in and through him almost the entire village came to know Christ and his love.
There’s more to the story including her reunion with her father, but I encourage you to read the actual article for that.
Even in ministry, we carry pride into it. We think that it’s our ministry. That what happens is because of the work and effort we put in. But with this mindset there will be many tears and anger. The truth is we don’t know how God is going to use us. What if God uses us like Svea and we never in our lifetime see the fruits that we have made for the kingdom?
What if we’re faithful to God our whole life and yet we didn’t turn into Billy Graham? Did we do something wrong? Is God not a good God to not use us? God is using everything you do for his kingdom. If you stop focusing on “your ministry” and “your impact” and instead think about how you can show Christ’s love to others, your mind starts to get to the right spot.
We must be obedient and willing to be used by God in any way he sees fit. Not being afraid to ask God for BIG things. Why don’t we ask God to use us to impact entire nations with the gospel? WHY NOT? Is that too big for God? Can God not use our small lives to impact anything he wants in the world?
Why do we ask for so little? Yes, God cares about every aspect of our life, but God can do so much more than we can imagine yet we can’t even dream outside our own needs and wants.
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” – Matthew 9:37-38
What if every Christian took this seriously? What if every Christian was not only praying for laborers to be out in the harvest but weren’t afraid to ask God to use them in the harvest?
Stop asking so little and being so focused on your life. Ask more of God and focus on God’s plan. He will use you to do more than you could ever imagine.