What is the new thing God is calling you to in 2024? Is there a way you must die to yourself to see new life grow?
What does a new year bring to your mind? A fresh start? New opportunities? New life? Often, for something to be new, the old must fade away.
Giving is inherent in seeds. The seed itself must die for it to become new and fruitful. A seed cannot maintain its current form and bring about something new.
Dying to Yield Abundant Life
As Jesus speaks to his disciples about his death in John 12:24, he says: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
He is clearly speaking of his own sacrifice, yet he doesn’t stop there. “Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me,” John 12:25-26.
Jesus spells it out for his disciples and for us. Releasing the old for the sake of new, abundant life.
An Opportunity to Grow
How does this apply to missions, and in a One Challenge context, the Seed Fund? As we venture into new ministry opportunities, we realize there will be letting go of others.
After the Türkiye and Syria earthquakes, an OC couple felt the Lord’s calling to relocate to hard hit zones. This was an opportunity to reach needy people in a critical time. Not just with physical and emotional concerns, but with spiritual needs as well.
This came at a cost. Financial, ministry, and emotional costs. Leaving a community where they had been serving for over 10 years and seeing spiritual growth, to a new and difficult ministry area.
Despite the cost, they followed God in obedience. The seeds they had sown in their old home changed. The working of that “soil” was handed to others to continue. The Lord asked them to break ground in something new. We have faith that, “My Father will honor the one who serves me,” John 12:26.
The unrestricted and sacrificial giving to the Seed Fund can help our workers follow God’s leading. We are eager to see how the Lord will continue to use it for his purposes.
Finding Your Path
So, again, what is the new thing God is calling you to in 2024? Is there a way you must die to yourself to see new life grow?
As you are starting fresh and making resolutions, prayerfully discern what God wants from you. Opportunity and new life reside in you. How will God use you in 2024?
Prayer Breaks New Ground
We are grateful the words of Isaiah are true: “For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations,” Isaiah 61:11.
Let’s pray together for this new life.
- Pray for new ministry opportunities for One Challenge. Pray the Lord will give us clear paths in 2024.
- Pray for the Lord to show you how you can serve and follow him.
- Pray for the Lord’s blessing to the Seed Fund. Pray it would be used for his purposes.
- Pray our partners and supporters will experience shalom in life and fruitfulness in service as they align with God’s purposes in our world.
- Pray new workers will feel God’s calling germinate in their hearts – those we may know, and those only God knows.
- Pray with us toward special year-end giving to the Seed Fund. The Seed Fund maximizes the United States Mobilization Center’s ability to serve OC global workers.
- Pray for hope to come to our under-supported brothers and sisters in OC. We are looking to the Lord to provide from within the OC community to assist our fellow workers.