God uses passionate people to further his kingdom. He may give you a godly passion for starting new churches, strengthening families, funding Bible translations, or training Christian leaders. You may be given a godly passion for reaching a particular group of people with the gospel: businessmen, teenagers, foreign exchange students, young mothers, or those with a particular hobby or sport. If you ask God, he will burden your heart for a specific country or ethnic group that desperately needs a strong Christian witness.
God gives us different passions so that everything he wants done in the world will get done.
God gives us different passions so that everything he wants done in the world will get done. You should not expect everyone else to be passionate about your passion. Instead, we must listen to and value each other’s life message because nobody can say it all. Never belittle someone else’s godly passion. The Bible says, “It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good.”14
Your Life Message includes the Good News. What is the Good News? “The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself—that it begins and ends with faith.”15 “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others.”16 The Good News is that when we trust God’s grace to save us through what Jesus did, our sins are forgiven, we get a purpose for living, and we are promised a future home in heaven.
There are hundreds of great books on how to share the Good News. I can provide a list of books that have been helpful to me (see appendix 2). But all the training in the world won’t motivate you to witness for Christ until you internalize the eight convictions covered in the previous chapter. Most important, you must learn to love lost people the way God does.
God has never made a person he didn’t love. Everybody matters to him. When Jesus stretched his arms out wide on the cross, he was saying, “I love you this much!” The Bible says, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all.”17 Whenever you feel apathetic about your mission in the world, spend some time thinking about what Jesus did for you on the cross.
We must care about unbelievers because God does. Love leaves no choice. The Bible says, “There is no fear in love; perfect love drives out all fear.”18 A parent will run into a burning building to save a child because their love for that child is greater than their fear. If you’ve been afraid to share the Good News with those around you, ask God to fill your heart with his love for them.
The Bible says, “[God] does not want anyone to be lost, but he wants all people to change their hearts and lives.”19 As long as you know one person who doesn’t know Christ, you must keep praying for them, serving them in love, and sharing the Good News. And as long as there is one person in your community who isn’t in the family of God, your church must keep reaching out. The church that doesn’t want to grow is saying to the world, “You can go to hell.”
What are you willing to do so that the people you know will go to heaven? Invite them to church? Share your story? Give them this book? Take them a meal? Pray for them every day until they are saved? Your mission field is all around you. Don’t miss the opportunities God is giving you. The Bible says, “Make the most of your chances to tell others the Good News. Be wise in all your contacts with them.”20
Is anyone going to be in heaven because of you? Will anyone in heaven be able to say to you, “I want to thank you. I’m here because you cared enough to share the Good News with me”? Imagine the joy of greeting people in heaven whom you helped get there. The eternal salvation of a single soul is more important than anything else you will ever achieve in life. Only people are going to last forever.
In this book you have learned God’s five purposes for your life on earth: He made you to be a member of his family, a model of his character, a magnifier of his glory, a minister of his grace, and a messenger of his Good News to others. Of these five purposes, the fifth can only be done on earth. The other four you will keep doing in eternity in some way. That’s why spreading the Good News is so important; you only have a short time to share your life message and fulfill your mission.
DAY THIRTY-SEVEN
THINKING ABOUT MY PURPOSE
Point to Ponder: God wants to say something to the world through me.
Verse to Remember: “Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect.”
1 Peter 3:15b–16 (TEV)