Counting the Cost
Helen Roseveare was a British Christian missionary to the Congo. She stated in her early 20s, “I’ll go anywhere God wants me to, whatever the cost. But please when I feel I can’t stand any more and cry out, ‘Stop!’ will you ignore my ‘stop’ and remember that today I said to you Lord, ‘Go ahead!’?”
And boy would Helen need that kind of clear pledge, for she endured many hardships in the Congo, including being taken hostage, and brutally abused.
Years later, when asked if it was worth leaving the safety of home, she said this, “The cost suddenly seems very small and transient in the greatness and permanence of the privilege.”
The privilege of suffering for Christ. Reaching our world is not an easy task. Martyrs are suffering for Christ around this world today as they always have.
Paul says in Romans, “We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
God’s love and God’s Spirit are bigger than our sufferings, allowing for supernatural perseverance and true hope!
Helen gave up the security of this world to completely fulfill her calling as a missionary.
Let’s follow her example and pledge today, “I’ll go anywhere, God, that you want me to go.”
“God’s love and God’s Spirit are bigger than our sufferings, allowing for supernatural perseverance and true hope!”
Romans 5:3-5
“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”