Lord Jesus, we have it on good authority that you love all peoples and have planned to include all peoples in your kingdom of light. You have also dearly loved your Church and have been calling her to reach those nations in many ways. So why do we still not see large numbers of disciples stepping up to cross the bridge into the unreached and unengaged frontiers and peoples?

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love” (John 15:9–10).

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Cor 5:14-15).

In the Gospels, we see Jesus go into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, and wrestle, and submit to his Father’s will, until he could relinquish his own will to his Father’s. But Jesus did so in the context of an intimate relationship with his heavenly Father. It was his Father’s love that activated Jesus’ ability to submit.

In the same way, those of us who have been inspired to consider crossing cultures and be part of the kingdom of God’s expansion among the still unreached need to wrestle with God about going (and sometimes even about supporting and sending those who do go!). It is a wrestling because it is a costly decision in many ways to do this, particularly in the difficult places where the good news has yet to go. We who have become accustomed to comfort, may lose it. We who have established satisfying relationships, may need to develop new ones which may be a difficult and time-consuming process. So, Westerners and those who are comfortable in their homes and communities, will find themselves wrestling with God.

Jesus chose to remain, abide, live in the love of his Father, doing his will, even when it came to laying down his life, comfort, everything. He honestly wrestled and communicated with God about how hard it seemed. He looked for another alternative (“Let this cup pass from me...”). But in the end, the Father lovingly yet firmly confirmed what obedience looked like at that point: sacrifice. So, Jesus submitted. He didn’t submit in a vacuum of love, but rather in the fullness of love, because of love, because he trusted his Father.

Paul testified in 2 Corinthians 5 that it was the love of Jesus Christ that compelled, motivated, and moved him to a costly obedience. He didn’t sugarcoat his calling and pretend it wasn’t hard or costly. He knew that at any time he would likely lose his freedom, his comfort, his friendships, and even his life. But somehow the love of Jesus became so real to him, so deep, that he KNEW he could trust and obey his Savior. He was compelled by THAT kind of love.

For me personally, it was the testimony of people such as Elizabeth (and Jim) Elliot, Helen Rosaveare, and others who showed me what the love for Jesus can free someone to do, what logic, biblical arguments, and the power of statistics can’t ultimately do: create a trusting connection with the One who calls and deploys us for his purposes. I began back in the 1970’s to abide in his love, joyfully doing his will in the small things, and growing in doing his will in the harder things. When I took this invitation to consider serving among an unreached people group to Jesus, and wrestled in prayer, and when Debbie (my wife) did the same, we kept coming up with his “Yes.” It was a joyful “Yes!” and because we knew he loved us and would be with us and our family, we were able to say our own “Yes, Lord.” It was his trustworthy love for us and the peoples of the world that compelled us, motivated us, and supported us every step of the way, especially in the hard times.

I’m reminded that every day we can seek Jesus and his will for things big and small that he wants for us. Some of them are easier than others. But as we live in his love, knowing how much he cares for us, we can find ourselves saying “Yes” even to the hard things, even when it means sacrifice and possible death.

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Cor 5:14-15).

It is Jesus Christ’s tender, deep, committed love that now lives inside us, love that gave its all for us and died, that we might live. With his love pulsing inside us and his promises assuring us, we can choose living no longer for ourselves but for him who died for us and was raised again. We, too, can boldly say: “Your kingdom come, your will be done.” We can mean it when we say: “Not my will but yours be done.” This is our “YES!” to God. This abiding relationship can sustain us through the difficulties and challenges of cross-cultural living even when things go terribly wrong.

What about you? What does the love of Jesus Christ compel you to do? Will you say “Yes”?