Sneak Attack!!!

I was talking with my sister tonight, who is going to Nicaragua for a missions trip in a few days, and she was telling me about how much spiritual attack she is experiencing, both relationally with friends as well as with Jesus.

This made me think, why does it seem like Satan attacks us so much more when we are about to go on missions trips?

My answer is not one that is normally said. I would agree with those who would say that there is heightened spiritual attack to cause disunity amongst the group going on a missions trip, that Satan wants people to feel isolated and alone, that Satan wants people to keep their eyes on anything but Jesus, and that Satan wants to prohibit a work of God from happening on the trip by distracting the people on it.

But I believe there is a subtle sneak attack that Satan does to many people who go on missions trips when he makes them think they are being attacked more before going on a missions trip than normal. I think there possibly exists a greater deception that many people don’t see.

It is important for every Christian to understand that the whole of their life is to be lived on mission; and, I would say, especially wherever they call home. But many people who go on missions trips think missions consist only in going to other places, namely foreign countries. Satan loves this because it keeps people from living on mission where they call home. They associate missions apart from normal life.

This is the deeper deception that Satan promotes in many Christian’s lives, by attacking them more before missions trips. People think, “Satan is attacking me (or us) so much more when I go on mission. When I’m at home, he doesn’t attack as much; it’s because I’m not on a missions trip.” He furthers this idea, that mission is apart from one’s home, by associating big spiritual attack with going to other countries for missions.

How absurd. We are on the mission of Christ wherever we are, even if that is in our own neighborhood, ESPECIALLY in our own neighborhood.

Now that the secret is out, Satan’s subtle sneak attack, let us live on mission wherever we call home. Let us proclaim to truth of the Gospel of Christ where we live as though it actually can save the people we live with and around, not just those in other countries.