Who’s More Blessed?—The Missionary or the Business Woman?--And the Guilt Factor by Jacki Scott
Recently I
had something that rocked my religious boat. I was talking with a close friend
who has a business in Italy which has had many ups and downs, turn-arounds and
a fair share of struggles. Business has been down since Covid, she had to move
out of her house, she had to find a new warehouse for the business, issues with
unreliable people making the product plagued her, finding clients, finances
were stressful, the country’s economy, legal hoops to jump through compounding
the complications. She’s probably not the only one who has experienced a
similar dilemma. But as she prayed and called on others to pray with her the
Lord took care of things: She found a new home AND a new warehouse very close
together which was a miracle, business picked up, the Lord provided a sweet
social media employee, plus clients and other helpful people. She gave the
Lord ALL the credit. She spent many very desperate days in
prayer petitioning her needs & pouring out her heart & feeling like she
was at the bottom of a black & hopeless pit.
What was
the result of this great desperation? One result was that of course the Lord
answered. But there was something much greater than just
answered prayer for a home, warehouse and a running business. He gave her a
closeness to Him, a tight relationship, a bond of certainty that He’d take care
of her, faith in His faithfulness, knowing He would always come
through, putting Him first no matter what, gratitude and joy in His provision
and love. Why does the Lord drag us through the mud of testing, anyway? Why the
purge? Well, like someone has said, the Lord isn’t so much concerned about
our comfort than He is about growing our character. What does that
mean?
The only
thing we are going to take with us to Heaven are the souls we win and the character we
develop here in our Earth journey. That’s it. And what develops our character,
grows it and strengthens it? Tests and trials are the fast-track to growing and
developing character and a wonderful relationship with the Lord.—Like Job.
Basically Job was transformed from just a very rich businessman to someone who
learned to put the Lord above all else & got to know Who God was
& His character, so Job could in turn become like the
Lord!—But he had to go to Hell and back to receive this priceless treasure.
So I
thought to myself, “Here I am on the field, living by faith. Trying to put the
Lord first, do what He wants me to do. I’m in a sensitive country and can’t
openly witness but I try to be the Bible in shoe leather. But am I really
that close to the Lord? My friend has drawn so close to the
Lord & she’s got a job & sort of what we used to say is ‘in the
system or world’. But who’s really closer to the Lord. My friend, or
me? I thought I should be closer to the Lord because I’m on the
field trying to live by faith. But am I really? What fruit do I have? How
desperate have I been? How much time have I really been spending with Jesus?
How much have I grown? How desperate have I been? How much do I really really
love Him? Have I been loving others more over the last years?” Wow. I truly
could not say I was a better “Christian,” even though I’m on the “field living
by faith,” than my dear Sister who is in her home country and managing a business.
This helped
me to see two things: 1) It’s not where you are that’s the
most important, like being a missionary on the field, than where your
heart is. And 2) It doesn’t matter to the Lord what you’re
doing—if you’re a missionary or business woman—because His end goal, no matter how we make our living, is to draw us closer to His heart, to develop a loving relationship with Him, and to be intimate
with His Spirit. And maybe a job can bring us to that end result very well.
And actually, someone with a “job” might be a lot closer to the Lord than me.
This was a little shocking to me—and maybe you know that already, but I’m a
little slow. It also helped me not judge people’s spirituality by what they’re
doing. A missionary on the field living by faith may not have as close a
relationship with the Lord than someone with a job.
The reason
I’m writing this is because I think some people, or quite a few people, may
have felt guilty that they returned to their home fields and got a job. They
may have known in their heart that that was what the Lord
wanted them to do, and they knew it was the Lord’s will, but peer pressure or
other pressures may have made them feel guilty with the feeling that, “The Lord
will bless you more if you’re on the field as a fulltime
missionary.” It’s an attitude adjustment. The Lord can help us reach many souls
if we’ve got a job. We can be a sample to the employees in our company. We can
have a small group that we can invite neighbours and friends to. We can have
on-line Bible classes. In fact, in looking at the sad and sorry
state of America and some of the Western countries, it seems they really need
some returned missionaries to witness and win souls, to turn the tide of evil that
is taking over and turn things around and bring light and truth back into the
hearts of people.
The Lord never wants us to feel guilty. Our job is just to go where He wants us to go, be what He wants us to be—missionary or business woman--& if we’re just doing what He wants, where He wants, we will be fulfilling His will, we’ll be growing and pleasing Him & living out our calling and destiny.—Like Joseph in Egypt, like Daniel in Babylon. There might be a few pits, lion’s dens and burning furnaces, but the Lord will bring you out and take you to a whole new level with Him! Just stay close to Jesus—that’s the name of the game & give it your best shot no matter what!
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