The Rescue Mission

The Rescue Mission

The LORD hears his people when they call to him for help. He rescues them from all their troubles. Psalm 34:17

GOD IS ON A RESCUE MISSION. We see glimpses of it in the Old Testament, when he promised his people an everlasting Kingdom and vast influence, delivered them from captivity and oppression, led them to pleasant places, intervened miraculously throughout their history, and established prophets, priests, and kings to care for them and guide them. We see a full expression of it in the New Testament, when Jesus said that the Father loved this world so deeply that he sent his own Son to redeem and restore it. Early on, Scripture sets the stage with a fallen existence; the rest of the story tells of a great rescue and a glorious end. He is able to save completely.

We are called to fit into that rescue mission somehow. As those who have been rescued (and are still being rescued in many ways), we join God in his global operation to redeem and restore lives. We each have a different part in that plan—telling the Good News in certain places, training those who have been rescued to be rescuers, leading others in worship of the Rescuer, and living out our many other gifts and callings. But we are all given the assignment and the opportunity to pray for the mission daily. We pray for our own part in it, we pray for those who need to be rescued, and we pray for the global efforts as a whole. We have entered into a comprehensive plan to grow God’s Kingdom on earth until the King returns.

In our prayer agenda, it’s important to learn to see people in new ways. While some divide humanity into those who are rescued and those who are not—the people of God versus the world—we need to see humanity as those who are already God’s children and those who are potentially God’s children. In other words, our prayers for people need to be filled not only with faith but with kindness, generosity, and undiscriminating love. The rescuing God builds his mission on such prayers, and his people will carry it out in power as he answers.

The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, and the nearer we get to him the more intensely missionary we must become.