How to be somebody by Gill Newham Missionary in Mongolia

We want to be somebody and make our mark on the world. It’s natural and the message the world constantly pushes on us. But we live in a confused world where equality is preached as our right. With its loud voice and the constant images that flash across our screens we can, unwittingly, become entangled in this fight.

The world seeks to undermine our Christian faith and delights in throwing doubt on the reality of God. We hear it all around us. People acknowledge that Jesus lived but many dispute that He was God. Our non-Christian friends call him a good man, a prophet and a teacher, but not God.

Yet the Bible clearly states that Jesus is the very essence of God and possesses the same deity and divinity as God. Jesus was equal with God but did not hold on to that equality. Instead He willingly surrendered His rights to His Father in order to come to this earth. But as humans we naturally, whether consciously or unconsciously, grasp after equality; even equality with God.

We strive to be good ministers of the gospel, to be faithful and just. But when we fail we realise that we do not know who we are.

Jesus is God. That fact alone should affect my mind. God has come into my life. He gives me hope and if I allow Him, then He begins to shape my life anew. There are times when we think we’ll never change, that we’re stuck; but if we think like this then our thinking is wrong. God can change us; He wants to change us to be like Jesus. But in response to Him we need to be radical in giving our absolute all to Him.

However, I’ve noticed that some make a mediocre response to God. They love Jesus modestly and come to church with a consumer attitude expecting to receive. But that’s not God’s heart. He created us primarily to give love not get it. The body of Christ doesn’t exist for us to get our needs met. Neither is it the place where I keep my hurts or offences close. Rather it’s the place where we worship God, freely surrendering our lives to Him and not, first and foremost, to a programme or even His service.

But we have to be settled in the truth that God is our heavenly Father, that Jesus truly is God. These facts change the entire focus of our lives, enabling us to let our lives revolve around Him rather than ourselves. And loving Him freely, our lives become enfolded in His service.

Interestingly Jesus came to earth as a servant. But he didn’t stop being God. He remained as God and took on the form of a man: the God-Man. I do not find that an easy concept to wrap my mind around. He could have come to earth as a great king. Certainly that’s what the Jews were expecting, but he came humbly as a servant because He served someone bigger than Himself. The Bible says He emptied Himself of glory and that He laid down all of His authority. And yet He worked great
miracles because God was with Him: He was dependent on the Father.

I am nobody; and like Jesus, I am dependent on the Father. But I don’t want to be limited by small ambitions or dishonour Him with low expectations. I am nobody but God is somebody. Jesus told us that through His Father we can do greater things than He did. Jesus was a servant but the greatest servant of all times. His life impacted and influenced the whole history of the world. If we live as He lived, holding on to the Father and not our lives, then we can have the same heart as Christ.