David Livingstone, a missionary from Scottish missionary to Africa in mid 1800s, once speaking to a group of students at Glasgow University. When he stood up to speak, he showed on his body the marks of his African struggles. Several illnesses on nearly 30 occasions had made him thin and haunt and haggard. His left arm, crushed by a lion, hung limp by his side.
After describing his trials and tribulations, he said: “Would you like me to tell you what supported me through all the years of exile among people whose language I could not understand, and whose attitude toward me was always uncertain and often hostile? It was this: ‘Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world’. On these words I staked everything and they never failed”.
Here is a man who left everything behind and to spread the gospel in a continent where it was wild and untouched and dangerous. He lost his wife who died from malaria in Africa and eventually his own life in African jungle. Yet, on his death, as witnesses describe, he died kneeling down praying next to his bedside. Until the end he was faithful to God and did what God had asked him to do and obediently fulfill his purpose through hardship that we could not even imagine.
God never promise that life would be easy, but He promise that He will be with us until the end. If people like David Livingstone, Paul, Moses, and modern missionaries able to follow Him faithfully, then we could too. They found something in their life that strengthens them beyond their human strength could ever able to withstand and that is the promise of God and His presence that was always with them. Even in the jungle, God was with him and kept giving him that joy to follow Him. To us, it looks like he threw his life away, but to him, he gain eternal life and that is worth throwing his life for.
Find that faith in your heart. Believe in the promise of God that He would never leave us nor forsake us. Make that eternal life together with Him as our ultimate goal and that is worth every single thing that we have. Believe in this that GOD IS WITH US ALWAYS, and that in itself is such a joy to behold.
Matthew 28:20
Daily prayer
Lord Jesus, I believe that You are always with me and as I go through this life, You will give me Your strength to withstand all there is to it. I will throw everything away so that I can have all of You in my life. In the Name of Jesus I pray.
image source: http://www.dailylifeverse.com/posts/images/2012/11/matthew-28-20.jpg?s=full