December 12, Missions Mind

Today’s reading: Psalms 56-60

“I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies”
- Psalm 57:9-10.

David’s desire was to worship not only in Israel, but also among all the nations. This came from David’s awareness that God was not just the God of his people, but God of all the people on earth, whether those people realized it or not. David saw it as his duty to make them aware of his and their God, thus making him a missionary of sorts. Jesus picked up on this theme when He came, trying to instill a missions’ values into His disciples, who were slow to embrace that perspective, preferring instead to stay among the people with which they were familiar. It was the Apostle Paul who championed the cause of missions in the early church, and his zeal took him all over the Roman Empire to preach the gospel and plant churches. The Apostle Peter also understood God’s desire for the nations when he said, “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right” (Acts 10:34-35). Do you have a missions’ mind for the nations, or is it just for your own people and culture? Are you supporting others who have a missions’ burden through prayer and giving? Are you open to some kind of foreign missions involvement for yourself, whatever that may look like?