Conversations with Satan (Part 2)

As I mentioned last week, the enemy has had much to say about us becoming missionaries.  Please pray for us as we continue to battle him in hopes of bringing others to know the Light of the World.

Monday Evening

Satan:  You are going to hate every moment of being a missionary.  Just think:  irregular electricity, continual hard work (probably more than you can handle), constant struggle, and daily sacrifice.  If you stay in the States, you have a great house, beautiful acreage, comfort, and ease.  Being a missionary is going to be a constant battle.  Just stay and enjoy life.  You don’t need to go.  God has other people he can send.  You can stay and do what you want. 

Me:  Saying good-bye to this house we built is going to be hard.  Selling our sixteen acres is going to hurt.  Watching the faces of our family, friends, and brothers and sisters at Sand Spring, fade away, is going to rip my heart to pieces.  Is God really asking me to give up these things to traverse the globe to tell someone else, I don’t even know, about him?  Maybe we could stay and just continue life as normal.  I am teaching Sunday School.  I do help with VBS and other classes when they need my help.  We are living for God right here in Lawrenceburg.  Is God really asking me to give it up?  Without a doubt, yes.  God’s word says, “Freely you have received, freely give.”  (Mt. 10:8)  It also says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  (Mt. 10:39).  God has called me to go.  To stay would be disobedient and fill my heart with sadness.

Monday Night

Satan:  You are going to fail.  You are going to fail.  You are going to fail.  You are going to fail.  You are going to fail.  You are going to fail.  God is going to be so ashamed of you.  What a miserable, pitiful servant you’ll turn out to be.   

Me:  I’m going to fail.  I’m going to be a horrible witness and instead of leading people to the love of Jesus, I’m going to push them away.  Probably by something selfish or foolish thing I do.  I’m going to fail.  Those are not words from my King.  God says, “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing”  (2 Cor. 2:14-15).   I am going to make mistakes, but God is bigger than my mistakes and somehow he will lead each of His children in triumph.

As you can see Satan hasn’t been a quiet spectator this past year.  He has whispered lie after lie into my ear, sometimes repeatedly as depicted in the last dialogue.  Yes, I hear often that I will fail.  But Satan never gets the last word.  God says in Hebrews 4:12 that His word is “alive and active.  Sharpen than any double edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  God always gets the last word.   Praise Him.  It is always truth and it always sets me free.

Bring on the mission field.  There’s a bond-servant of the King of kings ready to share his love with the nations.