Driven by Love
This past year I’ve been serving as a missionary in Southern California as part of a YWAM organization called Circuit Riders. Everything I do down in California is to serve my community and, on a global scale, my generation. I long to see Generation Z in love with Jesus, and I’ve committed to doing all I can to help with this task. My desire is for a life wholly laid down before Christ: driven by Love, and committed to making Jesus known.
Each year, I get to disciple around 20 women, teaching them to seek God and lead others to do the same. It is my great joy to see these women months later serving in different spheres across the globe. Through discipling these groups, God has revealed to me His nature in many ways—one of the greatest ways being His servant heart.
Entering the mission field, I had ideas about how and when I should serve. I tried hard to do everything my way, but it created a cycle of striving and burnout. Each time I tried to do things myself, I failed. I found over this last year that I can only genuinely serve when I rely on God to give me the strength and ability to do so.
In seeking the servant heart of God, I learned what it meant to surrender before God fully. Total surrender means not getting ahead of the Lord, but being patient and waiting for His Word. Jesus didn’t come to be served; he came to serve us. He does this because he loves us.
This Love—Christ’s love, is what drives me to serve others. 2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV says, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died.” Verse 17 continues, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We cannot serve our community if we cannot love our community; we cannot love our community if we do not love God. To love God is to know him deeply and intimately, and an intimate and trusting relationship can only be built through time spent together.
John 15:5 NIV says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Indeed everything I do relies on the fact that I abide in Jesus. I cannot function in a loving or honouring way if I am not letting the word of God wash my heart and mind. It doesn’t stop at my morning quiet time, though—I spend time seeking God and communing with the Holy Spirit throughout my entire day. My days are just a string of quiet conversations with the Holy Spirit between moments that come and go. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s true!
Nothing this world has to offer can compare to the pleasures of knowing God. Trials will come and go, and suffering will endure, but through it all, He remains. Christ is my strength, my comforter, my refuge and my shield. Everything I need is found in him, and I will lack nothing if I abide in him. In knowing Christ’s nature, obedience is no longer something I have to do, but something I get to do.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 NIV
This was the last command Jesus gave us before ascending into Heaven. Our responsibility after salvation is to share Jesus with all that we have. It’s in knowing the Lord that I’ve been able to make Him known. We bear fruit from our time spent with Jesus. That fruit then overflows into our daily life, and the love of Christ meets people. To be driven by love is to be moved by Christ. To serve God is to serve others, and to love God is to love others.
I continue to pray that my generation would be moved by the heart of God. That there would be a deep hunger and need for Christ among Generation Z. I invite you to pray with me as I carry out the mission to make Christ known among young people! If you want to get more information about what I’m up to, I would love to get in touch and share with you!
Sydney is one of our summer students serving on our Share team! If you’d like to hear more of her story, contact Sydney.
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