Total Submission

Weekly Devotional #4

July 31, 2007

Mission Impossible!

Back in the 60's there was an excellent weekly TV series entitled Mission Impossible. The show, staring Peter Graves and Greg Morris, thrilled viewers with mind-twisting plots of espionage, international missions, and political crimes that required the unique forces of a special tactical team. At times the team dawned masks and voice transformations, leading their opposers to mistake their identities so they could get the inside track behind enemy lines. This special team was not used for common missions; they were only called upon when no one else could do the job. Together, we rallied around a mysterious tape recorded message of the mission specifics, waiting for that ominous moment when the recorder would ignite a self-destruction device causing all evidence of the plan to go up in smoke.

I was always excited to see how this team of men and women would accomplish what the government considered to be an impossible mission. But they always did! They went beyond the walls of soviet countries, inside the quarters of commanders and agents, getting the skinny on top secret plots of murder and assaults on American officials and political structures. They became alien agents, risking it all to serve their country. Together, they devised unique strategies that pit their enemies against each other, rescued political prisoners, and foiled the plans of foreign masterminds. What regular forces found to be impossible--they accomplished!

We too have been called to come together to accomplish a mission. This election requires us to operate covertly at times, and overtly at others. We must learn to be a wise as serpents, yet as harmless as doves. We must be kind, meek, and temperate. But there will be times that we must be violent, taking the victory by force. We must obey the laws of the land, but deem eternal commandments above the law. Seeming duplicitous in nature, we must balance our tolerance for hardness and intolerance for sin. We must manifest endurance, yet mortal weakness that allows His immortal strength to shine through. We must operate in emotional stability that loves souls, yet hates Satan who holds those souls captive. We must remain constant under fire, obedient to the faith, our captain, and the Word of God while the forces of hell break all around us.

All of this makes not only life, but the mission He has called us to execute seem impossible. He has assured us life more abundantly, yet to attain it, we must die. He has promised to quicken us, yet he has instructed us to mortify our members. And in the midst of these seemingly opposing factors, we are pressed on every side by trials, temptations, and hatred from the very souls He has commissioned us to save.

As God's daughters, we are soldiers. That means we must master certain skills in order to be effective. As stated by author Elizabeth George, we must master our tolerance and emotions; master our temper--yielding a peaceful heart, a patient spirit, a cooperative attitude, and self control. We must master our tongue--speaking less often (Proverbs 10:19); only after thought and prayer (Proverbs 15:28); and executing wisdom (Proverbs 31:26). This mastery in itself puts us on a personal mission.

We must seek to build the broken, speak life into the dead, and apply a healing balm to the sick. And in the heat of battle, we must constantly perform search and recovery operations for new converts and the wounded in battle, carrying them across dangerous lines of open fire by the adversary, for Christ requires us to seek and save that which was lost!

For these awesome tasks we must remain strong. That means we must maintain an attitude of joy in the heat of the battle, fiery trials, temptations, open assaults, and brokenness. While some understand the symptoms of joy to be merry hearts and laughter, we the daughters of the immortal God must elevate our understanding according to the Word which tells us "The joy of the Lord is our strength" (Nehemiah 8:10).

Because our burning desire is to submit to Him, serve Him, and please Him, our joy is based on our ability to fellowship with Him--even if it is acquired through suffering. For Jesus, His joy was a vision of that which was set before Him--the salvation we would receive after His death on the cross. Our joy should be the same.

The mission really is impossible by the world's standards! To find life by losing it (Matthew 10:39); to be exalted through abasement (Matthew 23:12); and to resist through submission (James 4:7), are certainly beyond our reach. That's the bad news. The good news is that our sufficiency is not of ourselves, it is of Him (2 Corinthians 3:4). And though faced with the impossible, we forge ahead "calling those things which be not as though they were" (Romans 4:17). Because we are fully persuaded that He is able to perform what He has promised.

The situation may look impossible. Circumstances may stink with the fumes of impossibilities. But with God...NOTHING shall be impossible! (Luke 1:37).

Stay on the mission my daughters!

LadyPortia

Total Submission Chairlady