The Mission of God
All of our lives are used for something. Most people spend their lives focused on growing a family, building their career, or amassing possessions.
While none of those things are necessarily wrong, they can become distractions from our ultimate goal in life.
In the book of Acts, we see Paul’s transformation in Christ. As a result of meeting Jesus and being changed by His grace, Paul spends the rest of his life preaching the good news of Jesus.
For Paul, God’s grace and salvation is so great that nothing on this earth is as important as God’s work.
Paul says that nothing in His life matters as much as telling others about God’s grace. His goal in life was to finish his own race well by faithfully accomplishing as much of the mission of God as possible:
"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace."
Acts 20:24 NIV
The mission of God is not opposed to growing families or building careers. In fact, God desires for us to use those opportunities to faithfully accomplish the mission of God. We can raise families in the way of God, and we can tell our coworkers about God’s grace. Any place we find ourselves in can be an opportunity to accomplish the mission of God.
Take a moment to consider your own life and where you spend your time. Are you using every opportunity you have to spread the good news of Jesus? Does your life, like Paul’s, point toward God?
Consider a few ways that you can begin to change your perspective and live your life on mission for God.
A Unifying Mission
Almost every successful company or group in history has shared something in common: they all had a unifying mission.
Missions are critical in not only aligning objectives, but also unifying a large group of people toward one purpose.
As Christians, we all share the same mission. We are unified in following Christ. We're saved by His blood (Romans 5:9) and we're all called to make disciples in His name (Matthew 28:19).
And yet, even among Christians, there is so much division and disunity.
Part of the division comes from our lack of clarity and commitment to the mission that is defined in Scripture. And to make it worse, we are sinful people, and sin naturally causes division in our lives and relationships.
But, the Psalmist in Psalm 133:1 reflects on how good it is when the people of God live together in unity. There is something powerful that happens among Christians when we are unified.
Unity is not putting away our differences, because there would be no need to be ...