Enjoy these thoughts from Kent Smith, who teaches missions (especially for North America) here at ACU.
The most vibrant, powerful and downright enjoyable people I know are those who are proactively engaged in God’s life and work. I’ve had the opportunity this summer to spend time with a number of these people across North America. But the challenges such people face often come without warning and go without telling.
And the challenges need to be told. To avoid being blindsided, I think it’s important to name the normal opposition that comes—sooner or later—to everyone engaged in significant Kingdom initiatives. If you are actively paying attention to what God is up to, and purposely joining God in that work, you can expect to be opposed.
The opposition comes in many forms. Some of the most difficult to face is internal—temptations, irrational fears and baseless bouts of depression. From long experience I know that whenever I am engaged in work that promises new Kingdom advancement, sleepless stretches in the middle of the night lie ahead. During those times I am made to witness vivid scenes of coming disaster and my inadequacy for the job.
If that were not enough, we often face daunting external opposition. People bail on us or openly resist and criticize our work. Carefully constructed plans go awry, things break without warning, even our bodies seem to betray us. At times it feels that, despite our best effort, we are accelerating away from where we hoped to go.
Though we shouldn’t be surprised by all this, it seems that often we are—and discouraged to the point of giving up. That, of course, is precisely the point of all this assault.
And make no mistake. Assault is what it is. The Opposition to God has a well-proven plan for taking you out of play: Distract—Discourage—Disable. If the Enemy through opposition can redirect your attention from our good, strong and loving God and onto the problems and threats, you will be distracted. The longer you remain distracted, the more discouraged you will grow. At some point you will give up and be disabled for the work. This is standard tactics in the Enemy’s Kill, Steal and Destroy campaign.
The apostle Paul, no stranger to the worst opposition, saw the challenge differently:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison—because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (1 Cor. 4:16-18)
Two thoughts stand out to me here. The renewal we need in our corrosive world is day by day. It is daily. The inner perspective to carry on in the call of God is sustained in a relentless commitment to receive daily renewal. And—the key to that renewal lies in where we are looking. If our attention is riveted on the Eternal, attempts to distract us with the temporary will find little footing.
Can this really be done? Yes. Expect opposition—but refuse to let it distract you. Instead, face opposition by turning your daily attention to eternal truth, eternal community, to eternal God. From that place you will see with growing clarity the forces aligned against you for the light, momentary distractions they are.
People who are learning this discover a key to lives of joy—not just in the absence of challenge—but in the face of it.