Ready, Fire, Aim!

“Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted.” (Psalm 127:1)

Food For Thought: How often are we guilty of going about our lives—doing our work, raising our families, making our plans, going on trips, spending money on things we want—then, almost as an afterthought, including God…that is if we include him at all. God doesn’t want to be an afterthought! He desires…and demands…and deserves to be at the center of our lives, at the core of our efforts, and motive for all that we think, say and do. When we fail to do that, we dishonor our Lord and Master. Furthermore, we risk wasting whatever energies, resources and hopes we have put into our efforts. On the other hand, putting and keeping God first in everything guarantees his pleasure and favor in our lives.

Prayer: Lord, I confess that it is easy for me to go about my life, and then include you as an afterthought. How many times have I had a “ready, fire, aim” approach to getting your guidance and favor in what I wanted to do. I ask you to forgive me of that, you deserve better. And I pray that you would give me a sensitive heart that first and always looks for your will and desires to fulfill your purpose in all that I think, say and do. Your will, O Lord, first and foremost—may that be my consuming desire. In Jesus name I ask. Amen.

On this day … In 1834, William Carey, the father of modern missions died at 74. Carey was a Baptist minister and missionary to India who’s life-philosophy was, “Expect great things from God! Attempt great things for God!”

One remarkable incident in his life reveals the remarkable faith and character of this man who did so much for the cause of Christ globally. A warehouse fire in 1812 destroyed his life’s work. The building housed 20 translators as well as typesetters, pressman and other writers working feverishly to produce Bibles in the various Indian dialects. Lost were Carey’s entire library, his completed Sanskrit dictionary, and ten translations of the Bible in addition to many other valuable resources. Only five pieces of equipment survived.

When Carey surveyed the ruins, he tearfully said, “In one short evening the labors of years are consumed. How unsearchable are the ways of God. I had lately brought some things to the utmost perfection of which they seemed capable, and contemplated the missionary establishment with perhaps too much self-congratulation. The Lord has laid me low that I may look more simply to him.” Later Carey wrote, “The loss is heavy, but as traveling a road the second time is usually done with greater ease that the first time, so I trust the work will lose nothing of real value. We are not discouraged, indeed the work already begun again in every language. We are cast down in despair.”

Carey went to work rebuilding. By 1832, he had expanded his publishing efforts well beyond the original scope and had published complete Bibles or portions of the Bible in forty-four languages and dialects. Carey served as a missionary in India from 1794 until his death in 1834—and never took a furlough. Truly his was the father of modern missions—and a great example of a man whose work in the Lord was not in vain.