Christ, we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Colossians 1:28–29, ESV
As Christ embraces His chosen people, the message He gives to us and the compulsion to share it increases. It is something that He writes upon the hearts of believers and is meant to be carried out into the world. It is true that not all will become pastors of congregations or will be called to serve as missionaries in a far-off land, but all Christians are called to the mission of God. If you believe in and follow Jesus Christ, you are a missionary and are called out to proclaim Jesus to everyone whom God places in your life. This doesn’t mean that every Christian needs to go on the street corners to tell people about Jesus or go door-to-door to hand out tracts. If God calls you to do that and you feel a strong desire to do that, then I would encourage you to listen to that call. To be a missionary, though, may simply be to share your faith in conversation by not removing Jesus from your vocabulary or restraining yourself from speaking a thought about something that highlights your faith in the situation because it may make another feel awkward. Really, it may only be you who feels awkward in the moment, and the nudge is God just pushing you to share. Isn’t it funny how we will overcome our awkward feelings of going door-to-door to sell candy bars for a school fundraiser or to raise money for UNICEF, but to talk about Jesus is too hard? Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t relish the idea of doing either, but if God urged me to do it, I would because I have learned the hard way what happens when you resist His urgings. To learn about Jesus and to teach others about Him are the most vital callings that God gives us all as Christians. We never really stop learning, and there are always others we can teach, but that can only happen when we are open to doing that which God is calling us to do and heeding that call in our lives. All this is done with the end in mind, living fully into Christ and Christ living fully in me.
Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.