Do you know what your mission in life is? Jesus certainly knew His. And whatever happened, He always stayed focused on His mission.
Luke 9:54-56 (NKJV) And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” 55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. 56 For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” And they went to another village.
When James and John wanted to blow away this Samaritan village because the inhabitants had disrespected Jesus and turned Him away, Jesus let His two firebrand disciples know: “That’s not the mission!”
Jesus didn’t come to destroy people’s lives, He came to save them. No matter what their attitude toward Him, or how they treated Him, getting people saved was always His focus. He never let disrespect or maltreatment by the people He came to save deflect Him from the mission.
The most significant example of the Lord’s laser-like focus on His mission is, of course, the cross. Even as He was being put to death by the very people He came to deliver from death, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
Every day I need to ask myself, how focused am I on my mission? Do I have the same laser focus on seeing my neighbors delivered from death that Jesus had?
And just how much (or how little) disrespect or opposition from the people around me will it take to make me start reacting to how I’m being treated, rather than keeping my focus on the mission?
Ron Franklin
