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Practical
Ways to Build your World Vision
by Lynn Mussawir
The key to becoming a world Christian is to start seeing the world as God
sees it. Building a world vision is a challenge requiring discipline, hard
work and the willingness to fight self-centeredness, while depending on God
to change our perspective. It is a lifelong process, and there are several
building blocks we can use to help us in our growth.
Scripture
God uses His Word to change us. When studying Scripture with an outward focus,
we see missions is not an “addendum” God had Jesus command his followers
to pursue just before he left the earth. Instead, we see missions comes from
the heart of God, and the message of missions is woven throughout the Bible.
As we study Scripture in this way, our view of God, the world and ourselves
changes.
Curent
Events
We need to learn about what is happening in the world around us in order to
build our world vision. For example, feeding our vision for the world through
current events means we are interested in what is happening in the Middle
East. We should also respond in prayer when a disaster strikes in Asia. In
our country, we have little excuse for a lack of knowledge about world events.
Electronic media, broadcast news and the printed page provide a wealth of
information we must not take for granted.
Prayer
Discovering God's perspective of love and redemption from Scripture, and becoming
informed about our world's needs, should drive us to our knees in prayer.
Prayer is an essential building block in constructing our world vision because
it gives us a perspective on who is in charge. Prayer also is a tool God uses
to change us. When we are focused on the needs of the world, it is easy to
become overwhelmed about where to start in our intercessions. Tools such as
Operation Mobilization's prayer cards and the Xenos pamphlet, “7
Ways to Pray for Your Missionary,” can help us focus and direct our
prayers toward specific needs.
Reading
Reading missionary biographies or books can inspire us, help us grow in our
vision of God, and how He uses people just like us to accomplish His will.
First-Hand
Experience
A healthy and growing world vision requires us to grow beyond our ethnocentricity,
or our natural tendency to judge the behavior of people in other cultures
by the values and assumptions of our own (it's what makes us, “us,”
and them, “them.”) One of the best ways to do this is to experience
life outside our normal realm. Although a trip to the mission field may not
be possible for all of us, we still can expose ourselves to cross-cultural
experiences right here at home. Some options might include becoming involved
with internationals who live and work in our communities, or hosting an international
student.
Giving
Jesus tells us that our hearts and treasure are directly linked: “For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).
Thus, if we want to develop a heart for world missions, we should direct our
earthly treasure that way as well. We also tend to pray more for the ministries
into which we have invested financially.
By
using these and other tools, the Lord will help us take our eyes off ourselves,
increase our burden for the lost and gain a greater sense of where He wants
to use us in His master plan.
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