Considering God’s missional nature can be tough if it conjures ideas about missionaries who lived this out in radical ways. We respect these examples, but they feel unattainable. Is this what it means to live for a missional God? While it is true that God is missional, the primary calling God has for us is to be God’s children, submitting our entire selves so that we might live into this new identity. Then, as Christ grows us up into that identity, we will naturally reflect the missional identity of God.

Ruth is a good example; she surrenders her previous ideas about herself. But Ruth said,

Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God. Ruth 1:16  (NRSVUE)

We may think that Ruth participated with God because of her upstanding character, but it was God’s invitation and movement toward her first that allowed her to submit and surrender who she thought she was — her old self. Then Ruth clung to her newfound identity as a child of God.

As we step into the identity that God has for us, we need to trust that it is God who is missional. God does not need us, yet he allows us to share in his work of love. From this understanding, we can be more effective at reaching out, because our identity and worth are never dependent on the results of our effort.

Reflect on what God’s missional nature means for you.

First published on 9 October 2024 in GCI Update Devotionals https://update.gci.org 

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