“Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” Psalm 127:1
This blog is dedicated to journaling our journey to the mission field and the closer we get the more excited we are. We have shared with many people and churches our passion for spreading the Gospel and for translating the Word of God.
And yet, the closer we seem to get to the mission field, the more the Lord seems to be humbling me through my children (one in particular). And I am so grateful for this humbling because it forces me to remember that Dave and Stacey Hare cannot save ANYBODY, not even our own children. It is the Lord who saves people and we are simply his messengers. Specifically…
- How humbling it is to go to another country to translate the Bible when (at this point) the Bible is not treasured by my own children.
- How humbling it is to spend thousands of dollars and travel across the world to adopt orphans only to have them consistently reject my instruction and discipline.
- How humbling it is to pray over and over again for the Lord to give my children eyes to see and ears to hear the good news of the Gospel of Christ only to wake up the next morning to the same hardness of heart.
- How humbling it is to acknowledge that I can’t even save the souls of my own children who I spend all day with teaching them the about Bible and the Cross.
- How humbling it is to see darkness even in my own home.
- How humbling it is to read the Lord’s words, “’I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God how has mercy.” Romans 9:15-16
- How humbling it is to acknowledge that no matter how much I want it, I cannot save even one soul.
Yet in the face of realizing that I cannot save my children, let alone those in Cameroon, I can still take up the two most powerful weapons the Lord has given me:His Word and Prayer.
The Word
“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” – Isaiah 55:10-11
Every time we sit down and memorize a verse together, or read a Psalm in the morning, or use a Scripture to correct a sinful action, or share a verse about how they can be saved through faith in Christ, God is doing something with his Word. He has an invisible agenda and this agenda is always accomplished when his Word is spoken.
Prayer
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Mark 11:24
Just because my children are uninterested in things of God today does not mean that my prayers have fallen on deaf ears. Faith is being certain that God does hear my prayers and that he intends to give me what I ask of him, even when I cannot see the results immediately.
So, even though I cannot save even one soul, God can save them all.
- God can take my four children and turn them into warriors for his Kingdom.
- God can save the hardest, most lost sinner.
- God can continue to give me grace as I parent my children.
- God can make his Word accessible in all the languages of the world.
- God can rip out hearts of stone and give hearts of flesh.
- God can write his Law upon the heart of my children.
- God can save witch-doctors and those who bow down in worship of spirits and false gods.
So to any Christian who may be discouraged as you share the Gospel with those who are consistently uninterested, I pray this post encourages you to not grow weary in the good task of sharing the Word and prayer. May you and I at the end of our lives stand before Christ knowing that we were faithful messengers of this great Gospel he has entrusted to us, whether he chooses to allow us to see the fruit of our labors on earth or not.
“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” – C.H. Spurgeon.
