. . . they went forth for His name’s sake . . . —3 John 7
Our Lord told us how our love for Him is to exhibit itself when He asked, “Do you love Me?” (John 21:17). And then He said, “Feed My sheep.” In effect, He said, “Identify yourself with My interests in other people,” not, “Identify Me with your interests in other people.” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 shows us the characteristics of this love— it is actually the love of God expressing itself. The true test of my love for Jesus is a very practical one, and all the rest is sentimental talk.
Faithfulness to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of redemption that has been performed in me by the Holy Spirit— “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit . . .” (Romans 5:5). And it is that love in me that effectively works through me and comes in contact with everyone I meet. I remain faithful to His name, even though the commonsense view of my life may seemingly deny that, and may appear to be declaring that He has no more power than the morning mist.
The key to the missionary’s devotion is that he is attached to nothing and to no one except our Lord Himself. It does not mean simply being detached from the external things surrounding us. Our Lord was amazingly in touch with the ordinary things of life, but He had an inner detachment except toward God. External detachment is often an actual indication of a secret, growing, inner attachment to the things we stay away from externally.
The duty of a faithful missionary is to concentrate on keeping his soul completely and continually open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women our Lord sends out on His endeavors are ordinary human people, but people who are controlled by their devotion to Him, which has been brought about through the work of the Holy Spirit.
Journal DJR
Good Morning Lord.
I remember the time that I became conscious of your love flowing through me to other people. I was actually surprised by it. I was in a leadership position, with people that were not like me and I would have had no natural inclination to spend time with. But after a while I began to love them. I was surprised, as I had previously had to “gear up” to go into a ministry and service mode. Now it just flowed, and I remember saying to myself, “Hey, I can do this, This is actually easy and fun” I realize now that I could do it because I was allowing your love to flow through me. I can say with Paul, Romans 7:18 New Living Translation (NLT) And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] I want to do what is right, but I can’t.
So that was a great time. I loved being a conduit for your love. Help me find more situations that can be like that. Regular social interactions seem so much less intense.
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