My favorite song is Rescue, by Lauren Daigle. The song is all about the love God has for us and how He will come to save us in our times of need. He is our rescuer.
A believer in Christ’s main goal would be to become more like Jesus, right? We watch the way He acted and spoke when He was on Earth. We try to become a disciple of Jesus.
The Holy Trinity– Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit– are the only perfect Ones in existence. Not even the disciples were perfect.
However, I think we can learn a lot from the disciples about how to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
A lot of us want to go on mission trips in order to rescue people for Jesus. I think that mission trips, when taken for the right reasons, are wonderful. Sharing God’s love to people around the world is our mission from Jesus Himself right before He went back into Heaven. But the thing is, we are not supposed to be the rescuer. That job is for God, not us.
Something I’ve noticed while reading through Acts is that when the disciples healed people, they always brought the glory back to God. When they were preaching, it was all about how the people needed Jesus, not the disciples. The disciples made it their mission not to make the people dependent on them, but rather dependent on God. I think that’s an important thing to remember, whether we’re out on the mission field in a foreign country or right at home in our own community.
I was going to share a story about a person at our church who is such an amazing person and has done so much for us in her short time with us so far, yet has taken on perhaps too much because she wants to feel needed. She wants to be the rescuer.
But sharing that story would perhaps be hypocritical and not as perhaps impactful as sharing the story of when I tried to be the rescuer.
I think anyone with the “caretaker” personality has struggled with trying to take God’s role in being the one people need. I didn’t realize that I had this problem until a recent reflection over a few past relationships I’ve had with different people where I was so concerned about them getting on the right path that I didn’t focus on actually building the connection with them, but instead was focused on getting the task done of “fixing them”. (Another important thing to note for missions work: Don’t allow the task to come before the relationship. But that’s another topic for another time :))
Anyway, one friendship I had in particular has stuck out to me while thinking about the issue of trying to be the rescuer instead of God.
I felt pretty close to a friend in my life who was going through a difficult time. I felt like God had placed me in his life at just the right time so that I could help him deepen his relationship with God. We had one or two deep conversations about faith and he sporadically attended a Bible study that I had set up with some other friends of ours. I was so excited that I felt like I was making an impact on his life that, for lack of a better word, I got addicted to the feeling that I was changing his life. Keep in mind who I just said–me.
I went into the relationship thinking that I was being used by God, and I do believe that I was. However, I don’t think I ended up leaving the relationship with the same intentions.
This realization hit me when I was talking with him a few months after he had left the Bible study after moving away. He told me about how he was now a part of a Bible study in his new community. Later on, his mom told me all about how excited she was for him to have these new opportunities to grow closer to God.
My initial reaction should’ve been joy. This person that I’d grown to care a great deal about was now taking steps on his own to form a better relationship with God. That was the goal, right?
But instead, I was filled with disappointment that he didn’t need me anymore.
I think God caused this time of space between him and I for a reason. He wanted to show me that while I had done the right thing by encouraging this person’s faith journey, it was time to let go. It was time to see that none of that was done because of some special talent I had given myself. Rather, it was all done through the Holy Spirit working through me. So instead of being upset that now the Holy Spirit was working through other people in his life, I should be grateful for the time I did have.
The point I’m trying to make here is that yes, God does work through us in incredible ways. I want you to feel like you’re making a difference, because when God works through anybody, they are doing something great. But I want you to also learn through my story that we can’t get so attached to the mission that we forget who we’re working for. God puts people in our lives for a season. Granted, that season can take a variety of time frames, whether it be a day, a year, or decades. But God is the only One there for them forever.
So today, think about whether or not you are trying to be the rescuer instead of pointing people to the One who can truly rescue them. God is working powerfully through you, but it’s always important to remember who gave us our gifts to begin with.
We can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
Hebrews 13:6
The Will to Wake Up 