The Man On A Mission

"I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do" (John 17:4, NIV).
"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..." (Acts 20:24, NIV).  

One thing for sure, Jesus was par excellence the man on a mission from God.  From the very beginning, He sensed His higher calling that the Father had work for Him to do and He must lay down His life--He came to die!  His motto from the outset, when twelve years old, was, "I must be about My Father's business."  This was the theme of His life--to do God's will. You could say He had fulfilled the role of a lifetime:  "Thy will be done!"  And this is the yoke He has given us--to do His will, not to obey the law of Moses, which He fulfilled for us.  His yoke is easy and His burden is light!  One notable thing about Christ on His mission extraordinaire:  He never had "tunnel vision" and could always see the trees and the forest!  His secret was that He never forgot who He was or His mission: to be our Savior first, and then our King in that order.  He never forgot who He was and we ought to do likewise.

It is easy for us to get side-tracked and lose focus of what our mission is and to feel like failures--but keeping our eyes on Christ is a way to stay in touch with His will.  That is one unique thing about our faith:  it has a message for everyone, even failures and people who have messed up their lives, even sinners who have lost it all.  But if we haven't lost God, we haven't lost it all!  With Jesus as our Exemplar, we must not lose focus on the Great Commission and why we are here and that we must live our lives for Christ, not ourselves.

Jesus was on the Green Mile or His road to his (execution) cross and stopped to heal a blind man, never losing His compassion for people in need.  His mission was always front and center, but people mattered and they were never an interruption or inconvenience.  On His Via Dolorosa, Jesus stopped to tell a woman not to weep for Him: Christ was willingly going to the cross and knew what it entailed.  Even on the cross Jesus commended His mother to John and took care of her in her time of need, and the first thing He uttered was a prayer of intercession for those who knew not what they were doing and needed forgiveness--again thinking of others first!  Oh that we should never be too busy to welcome doing God a service or to lend a helping hand, for He has no hands but ours to help with.

As a guiding principle or rule of thumb, the more focused we are, the greater we can accomplish, and the more impact we have.  The problem with some people is that they are trying to do too much at a time, like walking and chewing gum as it were. We shouldn't try to multi-task so much and concentrate on doing God's will first and foremost.  David was known for doing all of God's will and was called a man after God's own heart for it.   It is not always good to have too many burners in the fire.  They are like spinning tops going around and around but getting nowhere!  If you're not going anywhere, it doesn't pay to be in a hurry.  It doesn't pay to be busy if you're going nowhere or have no purpose!

We need patience that our time is in God's hands and He controls the timing of everything.  To everything there is a season and purpose and a procedure, we must strive to do things God's way and in His timing.  In His time, He will make everything beautiful, so it is said in Ecclesiastes.  David prayed:   "My times are in your hands" (cf. Psalm 31:15, NIV).  In the final analysis, we must pray the prayer of relinquishment as Christ did at the Garden and commit everything to His will, not ours, lest He does let us have our way and mess things up--God does have our best in mind and we should know that!     Soli Deo Gloria!