Praying and seeking God may sometimes appear pointless, quite honestly. Does God truly abide by His word in Matthew 7:7? Don’t miss this amazing testimony of guest Andreea Hogan’s marriage and family as God has proven He was listening to her prayers all along, time and again!

What is the Lord building in your life right now?

The Lord is always working in our lives. We might know about two or three of the things He is doing with us, but in fact, there are thousands of areas He is working in us, minute by minute, that we don’t even know about. “It is He who works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

So I ask again, what is the Lord building in your life right now? Think about it for a minute.

Is He building perseverance, patience, faith, trust, peace, relationships, faithfulness…? We know the areas God is moving in our situation. Whenever God is leading us toward growth or a new calling or season, there is always a temptation to try to do it in our own strength. But God knows it must be His work, not ours; it must be a work of the Holy Spirit.

In Zechariah chapter four, we read about a vision that came to Zechariah about Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the civil leader of Israel in the time after the Babylonian exile. He was engaged in rebuilding the temple after the people had returned home. It was a huge undertaking, and there was much opposition from the surrounding peoples. God sent this word to Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah in chapter four, verse six, He says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, says the Lord Almighty.”

What is the Lord building in your life?

What are the areas He is knocking on, wanting to come in with His spirit and bring order? Where are you trying so hard in your own strength, to no avail? The Lord wants to remind you today that it is not your work; you don’t have to do it. All you have to do is let His spirit in; don’t resist Him. He is the one who will complete the good work in you and bring order to the chaos you are experiencing in certain areas of your life.

When we let God’s spirit in, to do the building in our lives then, it is just like God spoke to Zechariah in the next verse of chapter four. Verse seven says, “What are you, oh mighty mountain, before Zerubbabel you will be level ground.”

You see, as Zerubbabel understood, the building of the temple was not by his might or power, but by the spirit; as he invited God’s spirit to do the building work, then all opposition (the great mountain) became level. No opposition can remain in the path of God’s Holy Spirit.

What are the mountains in your life that seem so great, so impossible, so insurmountable?

I would encourage you to remember the word of the Lord. Your might, your power, your intellect, your niceness, your effort, your desperation are simply not enough to overcome, but if you will hand the work over to the Holy Spirit, He will bring order and peace to your situation. He will build the ruins of your life, just as He empowered Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple.

God goes onto say in verse nine, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple; His hands will complete it.” God was encouraging Zerubbabel that the work would not drag on hopelessly with no end in sight. No, he was telling Zerubbabel that He would see the work completed. What are those areas in your life that feel so hopeless, where you feel you’ll never see an end to it, never see it finished? Well, the Lord is encouraging you today, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will see an end to the struggle; it will not always be like this. “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it!” (Philippians 1:6).

Today, it may feel like you’ve barely even taken the first step up what seems like a looming mountain of fear. Perhaps you feel you haven’t even taken the first step, you’re just living perpetually in the shadow of your mountain of impossibility; well, here in verse 10 God says, “who despises the day of small beginnings?” Maybe inviting the Holy Spirit into work on your mountain seems like a very small beginning, but remember, you should not despise this. This is the first step up the mountain. God’s Holy Spirit will do such beautiful work in you, you will see His goodness transforming your life, “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

You can’t do it on your own.

You are not up to the task, but it is not by your might, not by your power, but by God’s spirit. Hand your hidden areas over to God; give Him your chaos, your ruins, your mess. His Holy Spirit will do the work that you can’t do on your own.

And remember, when the work is done, all we can say is “to God be the glory; great things He has done,” because we know we didn’t do it ourselves.

The setting was sobering. Our tour group of 51 people was at Yad Vashem (The World Holocaust Remembrance Center) when our amazing tour guide told us, through tears, the gut-wrenching story of how his parents both survived the horrors of World War II. When he was finished, there wasn’t a dry eye in our group.

As we left Yad Vashem that day, my heart was heavy.

It always is when I visit that place, but this time, there was something else going on inside my heart as I thought about the horrible atrocities that have been heaped upon the Jewish people throughout the centuries. I thought about how the Jewish people as a whole do not see themselves as victims, despite the horrible evils that they have had to endure. Rather, they see the difficulties that they have endured as opportunities to rise above. The people of Israel have gone through more difficulties than any people group that has ever existed in the history of mankind, yet they are such industrious people. The nation of Israel is a world leader in innovation, security, agricultural technology and fresh citrus fruit production and exportation, just to name a few.

When I think about how the people of Israel have chosen to be opportunists rather than victims, it reminds me of what we are called to be as followers of Jesus Christ. Romans 8:37 tells us that we are “more than conquerors through Him who loved us!” Now, we all know what a conqueror is. In Paul’s day, it was the Roman army who beat the world into submission. Today, it is the UFC fighter who destroys his opponent in the octagon. It is a football team that destroys the other team 56-0. We can think of numerous examples of someone or some team being conquered, but what does it mean to be “more than conquerors?”

I appreciate this insight from John Piper:

“One biblical answer is that a conqueror defeats his enemy, but one who is more than a conqueror subjugates his enemy. A conqueror nullifies the purpose of his enemy; one who is more than a conqueror makes the enemy serve his own purposes. A conqueror strikes down his foe; one who is more than a conqueror makes his foe his slave. Practically, what does this mean? Let’s use Paul’s own words in 2 Corinthians 4:17: ‘This slight momentary affliction is preparing [effecting, or working, or bringing about] for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.’”¹

Here, we could say that affliction is one of the attacking enemies. What has happened in Paul’s conflict with it? It has certainly not separated him from the love of Christ, but even more, it has been taken captive, so to speak. It has been enslaved and made to serve Paul’s everlasting joy. Affliction, the former enemy, is now working for Paul. It is preparing for Paul “an eternal weight of glory.” His enemy is now his slave. He has not only conquered his enemy, he has more than conquered him.

We live in a day and age where more and more people tend to assume the role of the victim.

I know that there are many people who have experienced much more tragedy than I ever have, and that tragedy has left them deeply scarred emotionally; but the scar that has been left from the wound that has been afflicted has the opportunity to define their lives in one of two ways.

For some, a scar is the reminder of the event that ruined their life, or their marriage, or their faith, but for others who, through the grace of God and the Spirit of God working through embracing the Word of God, that scar becomes the symbol of the thing that should have ruined their life, and is now a testimony of the abounding grace and power of God that turns the conquered into those who are more than conquerors. The affliction and the enemy have moved from being the master to the slave for the glory of God and for helping others who have gone through similar trials learn to overcome.

The Apostle Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7:

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.”

May we who are followers of Jesus learn from our Jewish friends to not allow ourselves to be victims, but through the grace and power of Jesus working in us, be victorious and industrious for His kingdom and glory!

Notes:

¹ John Piper, Don’t Waste Your Life, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2003), pp. 96-97.

We were about six months into our church plant in Oregon, when I headed out one day to a nearby lake just to spend some alone time with the Lord. For a church plant, things were going ok. We had a great school to meet in, and people were coming; but the ministry I was now involved in was a far cry from where I had come from. I had spent the last seven years serving as a high school and college pastor at Calvary Chapel in Vista, California, a church that had grown tremendously and was very active in missions and outreach. I was overseeing two ministries that kept me extremely busy teaching studies, planning and overseeing retreats as well as taking teams on overseas mission trips. We also, as a church, did a yearly crusade in our community and were active in the Harvest Crusade when it came to San Diego. Calvary Vista was a place of action, activity, and God seemed to always be on the move. But now I was in Oregon, trying to birth a church from the ground up, and it was slow going.

The activity level was a snail’s pace compared to what I was used to.

So on this sunny afternoon at a lake in Oregon, I had a very honest conversation with God. I asked Him, “Lord, what am I doing here?” “Why am I here?” I felt like I had been used in a greater way back in California. It was at that moment that the Lord spoke to me in a very clear way. It was not an audible voice, but it was very clear and very distinct. He asked me a question. He said, “Rob, if I took everything away, the ministry, the church, your family, everything, so that all you were left with was Me, could you find your satisfaction in Me alone?” The question took me off guard.

After I thought about it for a few minutes, I answered the Lord with a tearful, “No!” It was then that the Lord showed me that somewhere in the midst of my seven years of ministry at Calvary Chapel Vista, my sense of joy and satisfaction had begun to be wrapped up in being involved in what the Lord was doing in and through our ministry and not the Lord Himself. It was an alarming revelation. I was discontent in my life at that moment in Oregon because, in comparison to the ministry that I had been involved in back in California, I felt like the Lord wasn’t doing much of anything with me. That is when it hit me; my identity was in being a minister of Jesus and not in who I was in Christ. That was a monumental day in my walk with the Lord and in my ministry.

A New Focus

The next four years in Oregon were largely about getting my heart back into a right place with Jesus, discovering who I was in Christ and allowing Him to speak to and mold my heart once again. We read in Luke’s gospel that “Martha was distracted with much serving” (Luke 10:40, ESV). The interesting thing about that statement is that Martha was serving Jesus and His disciples who were at her house. I think this is a trap that every servant of Jesus can fall into; we get distracted from much serving because there is so much service to be done! What was Martha distracted from? Jesus answered that question when He continued to say to her, “You are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part” (Luke 10:41–42).

You see, Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus enjoying His presence and taking in His word. Well, Jesus could have said the same thing to me when describing my latter years of ministry at Calvary Chapel Vista. I had become distracted with much serving. Now, like Martha, I was serving God, but the one thing needed for me was to get back to cultivating the intimacy with Jesus that had marked an earlier time in my walk with Him. From that day forward, my passion became to know Christ more, not only through His Word, but also through the victories, defeats and experiences of life.

In Acts chapter 13, it says that the elders in the church of Antioch were ministering to the Lord. I find that phrase interesting; they were ministering to the Lord, not for the Lord. Ministering for Him consists of the daily responsibilities and needs that are a part of our calling. Ministering to the Lord involves sitting at His feet, listening to His heartbeat, being still and knowing that He is God. It is coming to Him in worship and being amazed at who He is. Because of my sports background, I have always been a disciplined person, and I was disciplined in having daily morning devotions; but to be honest, my devotional life had become mechanical, sort of like eating breakfast or taking vitamins. I read my chapter, prayed for the day and was on my way.

After that conversation at the lake, I knew the Lord was calling me to have a more passionate and intimate daily time with Him, to get back to sitting in His presence and being still and knowing that He is God. Taking time to be caught up in the awe and wonder of the reality that the almighty and awesome God actually desires to have a daily love relationship with me. I have also realized that in order for me to keep the right perspective and priorities, I need to set aside specific times and days for ministering to the Lord.

At least once a month, I try to set aside an entire day to pray and seek the Lord.

I take my Bible and journal with me, spending the first part of the day focused solely on my relationship with the Lord. Only after I have heard from the Lord personally do I move into praying about areas of ministry that I have the privilege of overseeing. The beauty of this change in my life is that whether I am in a season where ministry is full and exciting and God is moving in powerful ways, or in one of those dry, difficult seasons that we all go through, my heart is full of joy because my joy and satisfaction are in my relationship with Jesus; and not in what I am doing for Him or what He is doing through me. Ministry fluctuates, and can be forever changing, but Jesus is constant, and He loves us so much. Press into Him and find your joy and satisfaction in being His child, His friend, and everything else will be like icing on the cake!

Maybe you’ve heard of CrossFit. I’m one of those crazy people who have bought into their way of using constantly varied, functional movements at a high intensity. Basically this just means you work really hard, never at the same things, in a way that will make your everyday life better. This isn’t an ad for CrossFit, but I wanted to share a parallel I found in regards to my walk with God. CrossFit is hard and walking with God is far from an easy road at times. One of the benefits of this type of workout is that you should be ready for anything life may throw at you. This can be described as a hopper, think a drum full of different workouts or movements. The idea is that you would turn the cranks, spin the hopper and then blindly choose a workout. Some movements you would excel at; others would be more challenging and make you want to run away screaming.

The goal is to accomplish the hard stuff, rather than sticking to the things you are already good at.

Otherwise your overall fitness will be stunted.

Doesn’t life feel like this hopper sometimes? There are seasons when things seem to run smoothly, falling into place like a storybook. Other times it’s as if someone is playing a series of practical jokes on you, because nothing seems easy and everything hurts. I understand. Greg Glassman, the creator of CrossFit, said it like this: “There is more traction, more advantage, more opportunity in pursuing headlong that event or skill that you do not want to see come out of the hopper than putting more time into the ones where you already excel.”

Paul, an apostle of Jesus, talked about facing hard things like this:
“I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,[a] but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:12-14).

The natural inclination is to try to run away from the hard things, but we can’t just wish the difficulties of life away.

We have to be grown ups, don’t we? We won’t get any stronger, wiser or better equipped for what is ahead unless we run straight into what we don’t always know how to accomplish. The cool part is that God gets it; He knows the road ahead and the way to navigate it. If we will let God into our hearts and our lives, He has promised that He will walk along with us, strengthening us when we are inches away from giving up.

Life is unpredictable, something I am learning more and more each day as my two daughters are now in high school. My list of “conversations I thought I’d never have” is getting longer and longer. But something else I am learning is that once we come through a difficult conversation or an intense situation, we end up being stronger than we were before. Just as I am getting stronger by practicing new ways of fitness, I am learning to not let myself be controlled by the fear of what might possibly come out of the “hopper” of life. I can trust that no matter what is coming next, God is already there, like the best fitness coach I’ve ever had. He will correct things I am lacking, encourage me when I’m faltering and will ultimately celebrate with me when I conquer what felt unconquerable.

Every difficulty we experience in life is either an opportunity or an obstacle. The Chinese symbol for the word “crisis” is actually two separate symbols: one for the word “danger” and the other for the word “opportunity.” Many of us are viewing the present crisis we are experiencing as one or the other. It is either an obstacle in our way or an opportunity for the Lord to display His glory in and through our lives.

In Philippians 1:12, Paul says, “But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”

That word “furtherance” is the Greek word prokope. It could be translated “progress, advancement, movement.” It refers to something moving forward in spite of obstacles, dangers and distractions. Commentator William Barclay said it was, “specially used for the progress of an army or an expedition…It is the verb which is used for cutting away the trees and the undergrowth, and removing the barriers which would hinder the progress of an army.” The chief obstacle for Paul was his imprisonment, but that proved to be no obstacle to the advancement of the gospel. “There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.” –Francis Drake

If you’ve been in ministry any amount of time—whether it has been a week or a decade—a particular temptation will eventually come to you: the temptation to quit.

This temptation usually unveils itself in the middle of a very difficult season and may lure even the stoutest heart to fantasize about stepping away from ministry. Often, the desire to quit can show up when people mistreat us or cause heartache for us. It has even ironically come knocking on some peoples’ doors when life couldn’t get any better for them! We have all faced the pressure to give up or to give in, but especially, when times are tough.

If there’s one thing that the apostle Paul seemed to reiterate to his readers over and over, it was DON’T QUIT! Paul uses the term “persevere,” “press on,” or “strive” dozens of times in his writings to the Romans, the Thessalonians, the Ephesians, the Galatians, the Philippians and even several times to Timothy! Paul linked perseverance to character and to hope. When we stop pressing on and begin to look back and lose heart, we become stagnant and lose momentum. What’s worse is that we may actually begin to believe that giving up would be easier than to press on to the finish line.

Paul’s admonition to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 2, reminds him that soldiers, athletes and farmers all have some things in common. They all have rules and parameters to work within, whether that is the soldier working to please his officer by working within the boundaries of the hierarchy of command, or the athlete adhering to the rules of the game by staying within the lines, or the farmer not planting a seed and expecting a different plant to grow. Each of these involves incredible discipline and hard work. Each of them also looks forward to an end result: a battle won, a race completed, a harvest reaped. The soldier, the athlete and the farmer must all stay the course to receive the benefit of their labor. Quitting is not an option. Here’s an exercise to practice if you are thinking about quitting:

1. Consider your calling.

Did God originally call you to this? If not, why are you still wasting your time doing what God didn’t want you to do in the first place? If you were called by God, move on to the second portion of this exercise.

2. Talk to someone.

Often we are burdened by trying to hold on to things in our own strength, rather than submitting them to Christ or asking others to bear the load with us. Have you prayed about this and then sought counsel from someone more experienced than you? If so, move on to number three.

3. Stop fantasizing.

Many people who desire to quit are romancing the ease or comfort they think they will experience if they step out of their role. But this is a lie; with God’s calling comes God’s equipping. So when you step down from a role, you are not stepping away from God’s grace, but you are stepping outside of His promised favor and provision for that particular position. If you have stopped dreaming about something else, move on to number four.

4. Get to work!

Ministry is hard! Take up the plow and get busy! Stop complaining about how difficult life is and start pouring in to someone else. Before you give up, consider the following people who decided not to quit (adapted from dailywalkdevotion.com):

At age 23, Tina Fey was working at a YMCA.
At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.

At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer.

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.

At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.

At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-home-dad working odd jobs.

Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39 and got her own cooking show at age 51.

Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the Editor-in-Chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40.

Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40.

Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career and landed his first movie role at age 42.

Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first major movie role until he was 46.
Morgan Freeman landed his first major movie role at age 52.

Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it. Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it. Never tell yourself you missed your chance. Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough. You can do it. Whatever it is.

Sometimes I feel trapped by the all the things I think I ought to do. I ought to do more; I ought to sin less. I ought to feel better; I ought to become stronger. But somehow these oughts remain, and I’m still lacking. You see, oughts, no matter how many I pile up, have never been able to change me much. Ought is just not a strong enough appeal. And even if it was compelling enough to want to do something about it, I don’t find in myself the strength to accomplish much lasting improvement.
I find this very problematic. I can’t really do what I think I ought to do, and even if I can do it for a while, I lose interest after the novelty of it fades. I give up if results don’t happen or feel like I’m wasting my time. So, I transfer my attention to all the other things I ought to do. It’s a great recipe for feeling like a total failure all the time. Added to this inability to perform on an elite level in every area of my life (I am a recovering perfectionist), let’s throw in the curve ball of, say, chronic illness. So even if I ought to do something; I want to try it, and I do the best I can with what I’ve got, I still come up short because my body will decide that it just can’t get out of bed the next day after I’ve gone too hard and done too much. Seriously? It feels like I can’t win. The game is rigged. I’m doomed to failure.

Lately, I have felt that there are so many oughts demanding my attention that I can’t choose which one to do.

I’m not just talking about things on the calendar; it’s everything else that would also be “good to do.” And yet, the all-knowing Creator God has entrusted to me blessed limitations. They don’t feel blessed. They feel uncomfortably constricting. But they are for my good. Many times in my life, I have felt the struggle between what I think I ought to do, even what I think I would really love to do, and the finiteness of my own frame. “…He remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14b). Does that mean God set us up for failure? Or could it mean that our high and lofty expectations for ourselves are a bit man-made, and that His thoughts, which are higher than ours, might expect something different of us altogether? “For My burden is easy and My yoke is light” (Matthew 11:30).
I don’t think God deals much in oughts. It doesn’t seem to be His character to make deals with us: “Ok, if you do this thing you ought to do, THEN life will be great. Perfect. Go ahead; I’ll wait.” He doesn’t tell us to fix ourselves and get our act together and get stronger and be better and sin less and be magically unflawed in order to get to Him. No. Jesus says, “Come.” He requires no fixing as a prerequisite to coming to Him. (And, dear Christian, I am not only speaking of salvation here; I am speaking of the daily walk of a believer!) He doesn’t hang the heavy cloud of guilt-ridden oughts over our head and wait until we check every last one off the list before we can move on to the next level with Him. No. That’s the law. Remember? And if we keep the whole law, but fail at one point, we’re guilty of all.

Jesus didn’t come for that. Jesus doesn’t guilt-trip us.

I think it’s possible that we guilt-trip ourselves. Now, a healthy dose of “I’m going to die to my flesh and do the right thing” is absolutely appropriate. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the condemnation in our minds that says, “Now that you’re saved, you are required to perform perfectly all the time henceforth and forever, and failing to do so will disappoint God and everybody else.” Whoa. Did God ever say that to us? What about righteousness that is not of my own doing, received through faith, by grace? What about what Paul wrote in Philippians 3:9: “And being found in Christ, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith”?
Receiving the gift of Jesus’ righteousness imputed on my behalf does not look like me striving to perform better all the time. It looks like me saying, “You and I both know I can’t behave on a spiritual level in my own strength, Lord. This has got to be You.” And it’s not a linear progression towards perfection, either. I’m still as much of a sinner as ever; I just realize it more now. I’m worse than I thought I was. I need more grace than I ever could have fathomed I’d need.

Praise God that being in a relationship with Jesus is not about what I ought to do.

I think it’s funny and frustrating all at once when God shows us that He knows our frame is only dust. He’ll “close a door” in our face. He’ll let the chronic illness flare. He’ll cancel all our plans. He’ll, in His mercy, let us “do all the right things” and still not get the desired effect out of it. He doesn’t deal in oughts. Grace isn’t ought. Jesus didn’t die for us because He figured He ought to. He didn’t have to. But He did it because He loved us, and He chose to. And if “His ways are higher” means that He’d do something that selfless in order to restore my relationship with Him, I think I can receive the frustrations of life as His love to me, too.

So, all oughts aside, how do we move forward?

Come. Realize He loves us. Receive His grace. Come freely to Him and enjoy the relationship. His love and acceptance are exactly the satisfaction our oughts fail to achieve. He does not despise our weakness like we do. Jesus demands nothing of us; He just says come. The only guilt that should compel us towards God is the fact that we’re unable to fix ourselves. He’s fully able to heal and restore us; that’s not our job. He can; He’s willing. He loves us. Love isn’t ought. Love is response. We love because He loved us first. Sometimes love means limits and hard things; He knows that better than any of us. His love availed strongly for us, so we don’t need to ought anymore. We get to receive and respond and be loved.
So, I’m learning to not let the oughts dictate my performance. Be loved by God; the oughts don’t need a throne. Jesus, the infinite and loving Jesus, just says come, be and be loved. In the face of all our oughts, let’s draw boldly near to God, knowing this best not-ought: “The greatest of these is love.”

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” The words of Jesus in Matthew 28:19 have been the call to missions throughout the history of the Church. It was this verse that captured the heart and mind of a humble English shoemaker named William Carey in 1786 when he first proposed the formation of a missionary society at a meeting of local ministers. Compelled by Jesus’ words, Carey would go on to spearhead the great missionary movement of the 19th Century.

Carey was born in 1761 in a small English village and lived a life of poverty as a shoemaker.

After marrying at age 20, he also opened a school to support his growing family. He led such a life of obscurity that we would never have heard of him were it not for God moving on his heart!

Once William had accepted Christ, his interests began to expand. In his mid-to-late twenties, he started preaching and was named pastor of a small Baptist congregation. He also began to study various academic disciplines, excelling particularly in languages.

After reading about Captain Cook’s exploration of the Pacific, Carey was inspired to research foreign lands and peoples. As he filtered this information through his relationship with God, he realized that these countries represented multitudes of people who were perishing without the knowledge of the Gospel. This so grieved him that he would often break down and cry! Naturally, Carey’s vision expanded as he felt the Lord impress upon his heart the urgent need for foreign missions. He saw explicitly in the Bible God’s desire to make Himself known to all people, and so he confidently set forth to share this vision with the church.

At this time in English church history, it was commonly believed that the call to missions was an apostolic calling that did not apply to the church any longer. When it came to godless nations, God in His sovereignty would save souls in His own way; therefore Christians were free from any responsibility in this regard.

Thus when Carey proposed a missionary enterprise at that meeting in 1786, he was sharply reprimanded with the words, “Young man, sit down! When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine!” This may shock us as Christians today, but this view persisted for years until Carey published An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the Heathens. In this historic and revolutionary pamphlet, he addressed and confronted major concerns and excuses for not engaging in missions.

By the time the next ministers’ meeting rolled around in May 1792, Carey’s fellow ministers had at last become open to the idea.

Carey delivered a message at this meeting in which he made a famous statement: “EXPECT GREAT THINGS FROM GOD. ATTEMPT GREAT THINGS FOR GOD.”

And at last these ministers responded! Not to be overlooked is what a great step of faith this was; these men were poor, slightly educated, humble country ministers with no experience choosing to embark on what was then a virtually unknown venture!

Incredibly, the missionary society established by these humble men became the model for 19th Century missions’ organizations and essentially transformed 19th Century Christianity! Within a few years, all major denominations were inspired to form their own societies.

No wonder it has been said that this missionary venture “restored the Gospel to its central place in Christianity!”

As the Apostle Paul noted in 1 Corinthians 1, God truly has chosen the foolish, the weak, the base things of this world to show His power and glory, and these men in rural England are a beautiful example of this!

Not surprisingly, William Carey eagerly volunteered to be the first missionary sent out, and eventually he and his family departed for India with a man who had lived there previously, Dr. John Thomas. The group set sail on June 13, 1793, and arrived November 19 of that year.

From the start, Carey encountered obstacles, some of which would plague him for years. The East India Company, which monopolized the trade and occupation of India as a British colony, was hostile to “Christianization” and therefore to people like William Carey. The Careys were also ravaged by disease, and some of their children died. Dr. Thomas also proved to be a burden; although he was the mission’s financial manager, he had a habit of overspending and incurring debt, so that within a year he ran the Careys into bankruptcy!

To make matters worse, Carey’s wife began to manifest signs of mental illness following the death of their five-year-old son, Peter, spending the last 12 years of her life totally insane; she maligned William’s character and even chased him with a knife on more than one occasion. Toward the end of her life she had to be restrained in her bed, ranting and raving while Carey attempted to work and study in the next room. It is a testimony to the faithfulness and selfless care of her husband that she was able to stay at home and not be placed in an asylum. Through it all, William persevered in his work; amazingly, he chose never to speak ill of either Dr. Thomas or his wife, but to cast his burdens on the Lord.

What a powerful example of self-control!

Eventually his family moved to Serampore and was joined by new missionary families from back home in England. It was from Serampore that the ministry began to flourish. Together with William Ward and Joshua Marshman, Carey created a hub for Baptist missionary activity in India and became known as one of the greatest missionary teams in history.

Evangelism and preaching the Bible were the priority of the Mission; however, Carey’s first Indian convert did not profess faith until the end of 1800 (after seven years of ministry!). This was largely due to the pervasiveness of the caste system of Hinduism at that time. And yet beginning with this first convert and his household, one by one the Lord added to their numbers as many were emboldened by their fellow Indians to confess Christ. After 25 years of ministry in Serampore, there were about 600 converts with thousands attending services. What’s more, numerous mission stations in various districts of India were established.

As part of propagating the Gospel, Carey was driven by a firm belief in the need to translate the Scriptures into the vernacular of the people. He rightly concluded that once the Gospel transformed individual lives, it would in turn transform the culture as a whole.

For example, Carey’s translation work blew open the doors for written literature in India’s languages. Before he came on the scene, the language of Bengali had no printed literature, so this was a major improvement! Carey even printed secular literature and started the first newspaper ever printed in an oriental language. He thus paved the way for Bengali to become one of India’s primary languages. During his 35 years in Serampore, Carey made three translations of the entire Bible as well as multiple partial translations into a variety of languages and dialects.

By 1801 the British authorities discovered Carey’s translation work.

When they saw that he was not a political threat, they asked him to become the Professor of Oriental Languages at Fort William College in Calcutta, now Kolkota. Rather lofty for a self-educated shoemaker! Carey contributed greatly to secular and religious literature translation at Fort William. He also founded many schools throughout the country, including Serampore College in 1819, which trained up Indian nationals in evangelism and church planting. What’s more, his schools were some of the first in India to educate girls.

Although Carey loved and respected the Indian culture, he also worked to have horrific superstitious practices abolished, including sacrificing children to the gods, burning widows alive with their dead husbands, and burying widows alive. Carey petitioned the British government repeatedly for the abolition of such rituals, but it took at least 30 years for any legislation to be enacted! Yet when the final edict passed, the British Governor asked Carey to translate it! Undoubtedly, Carey found a way to bring the influence of the Gospel into every area, even when it came to science! Because he knew that astrology had a powerful grip on the Indian people, he introduced astronomy in his schools to demonstrate that the stars did not dictate human life, but were created by God and could be used for purposes such as navigation. As an avid botanist, Carey became the first person in India to develop forestry conservation as well as much of India’s agriculture and horticulture; there are even plant species named after him! By showing the nobility of God’s creation, he was able to help free people from superstition regarding reincarnation, which taught that some creatures were “souls in bondage,” and point them instead to their Creator.

As we can see through his contributions to India’s literature, education, legislation, and science, William Carey’s Christianity affected all areas of Indian culture.

Because he brought the Lord into everything he did, it affected everything he did!

He had a heart to see entire nations changed by the Gospel holistically—and it happened! He thus served as a model for future generations. Significantly, Peter Hammond noted of 19th Century missionaries “how comprehensively they sought to fulfill the Great Commission by ministering to body, mind and spirit. Their aim was nothing less than the total transformation of all areas of life in obedience to the Lordship of Christ.”¹

William Carey is indeed a powerful example of perseverance and confidence in the power of the Gospel. In times of great difficulty and little fruit, when many would give up or be counted a failure, he chose to cast every burden on the Lord and plod along with his eyes fixed on Jesus and His Great Commission. Although he has fittingly been named the “Father of Modern Missions,” at the end of his life he said, “Though I am of little use, I feel a pleasure in doing the little that I can. When I’m gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey—speak about Dr. Carey’s Savior.”

Enjoy the first article in this missionary biography series entitled, “How We Know Our God Determines How We Live Our Lives”.

¹ Peter Hammond, The Greatest Century of Missions

I like to think I am an enjoyer of good things. A sunset of brilliant colors, a cup of coffee that tastes of good quality, a flower that smells of good sweetness, a book that makes me recognize new (or old) goodness. Good is good.

Sometimes goodness comes in the form of newness. New mercies — unbelievably good. New ideas — helpful and inspirational. New information — aha! It all makes sense now. New socks — it cannot be denied. Fresh air or fresh vegetables or clean sheets. Good stuff.

Sometimes goodness comes from understanding. An idea, long mulled over, suddenly crystallizing in glorious golden light. The Gospel realized afresh in my heart; the knowingness of like-minded fellowship, sincere friendship or clarified expression; the blessed figuring-out of something.

Sometimes goodness is even stored up in expectations. A new year — this will be the best one yet. A new book — it’s off to a great start. A new person or ideology or season or flavor spectrum or a freshly sharpened number two pencil with which who-knows-what-goodness can be written. Expectations are delicious. But somehow they don’t last, and reality seems to crush them into less-than-palatable crusts.

Somehow that love of goodness, of newness, of expectation within me shrivels because I just can’t handle reality.

Reality is not what I have hitherto expected. I expected goodness! I had hopes! I had hoped… and now I just don’t understand. It can make me a bit cynical about goodness. All that pent-up disappointment silently pleads that, This cannot be goodness. I expected, but not this. I tried to understand, but it doesn’t add up. I looked to new mercies, and they seem neither merciful nor new.

Something within me, due to this life of reality-induced disillusionment, has developed a bit of frustration and understandably so. My expectation for myself, as a walker-by-faith, is that I’d keep up buoyant hopes, and that I’d trust – you know, be good at it. My “truster” within generally wants, knows, wills and endeavors to trust. But there’s a “doubter” within me as well that begs a hard question, and I’ve come to believe it isn’t there without purpose.

Frustration with “Reality-as-it-Seems” is more pervasive in human souls than we probably let ourselves admit. Goodness is good, and I wanted this to be good; but THIS is not very good. So I want to give up trusting, and I feel terrible, condemned and guilty for even slightly supposing that “this” isn’t quite good enough. Because, oughtn’t it be?

I’ve become more honest with God in the past few years. He imparted to me a “truster” within, and I find myself equally entrusted with a “doubter.” The goodness-seeker within me cries out, Don’t ever doubt! It isn’t good!
But what if a little, well-used doubt here and there actually is good?

What if God allows me to be disappointed, disillusioned, and at times even despondent for a while, when goodness just doesn’t seem to be good or enduring enough? For goodness is part of God’s character: He is Good.

He is also eternal. Goodness, therefore, I presume, is meant to be eternal. But the type of goodness I’m accustomed to seeing just doesn’t stick around, if it materializes at all. Anybody with me? The most glorious sunsets, coffees, books, ideas and pencils all have an end, alas! Understood-ness in personal relationships does not remain static, for as living beings, we are continually growing and changing and learning and becoming (which, as a side note, is a good thing); but what was cannot last.

So if my idea of goodness doesn’t stick around much past the momentary, my “doubter” leads me inquire about the nature of goodness. If even the best (most good) thing I see cannot last, then what, in fact, IS good? What is goodness? I ask because my search for it (as a liker of good) seems endless and unsatisfactory at this point in my process.

I think David, the Psalmist, felt this love of good and likewise this un-good disappointment. He wrote that he himself (the man after God’s own heart!) was capable of and even prone to losing heart. Losing heart, the lifelong certainty; goodness indeed! But, ironically enough, he used that fact to point exactly to goodness.

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. So wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord” (Psalm 27:13-14).

So I was right in the first place! Goodness ought to make me not want to lose heart! (Even though mine usually does!) David felt that too, but he knew how to “strengthen his heart in the Lord his God” even in times of distress (1 Samuel 30:6). This implies that my loss of heart is profitable in me, pointing me toward The One Who Is Good, seeking until I find His goodness. I find it further comforting that such goodness can be found in present “land of living” circumstances.

Beholding satisfying goodness in reality is possible.

My firm belief in seeing goodness here is restored, but my methods of finding may need to change, my rush-to-apprehend calm down. Maybe all these constantly swirling changes ARE the goodness of the Lord for me here, and I can relax and let them swirl. I can look for and enjoy the fading good things today by receiving them as gifts from God.

We are made to rejoice in goodness. Don’t forget to rejoice, soul. When disillusionments resurface, I can put my expectations of goodness on the Lord-Who-IS-Goodness, and though goodness may tarry, wait for it. He will strengthen my heart. I can slowly come to know enduring goodness, even through enduring.
There is goodness eternal to be found today too. I can entrust my frustrated, doubting, not yet-goods to the Giver of all good things. It is not against His character to use hard things to get me to look at Him afresh, and in Him, to find hitherto unseen facets of His goodness. I can expect newness and understanding as I allow Him into my reality. It may be slow, but it will be true and lasting — just like a jewel, dug, chiseled, refined and dazzlingly beheld. I think that’s the best kind of good.