We’ve been sold an empty promise. Caricatured as the ‘American Dream’ (the belief that anyone might realise their highest aspirations and goals), it proves an empty aphorism for most. The phrase emerged in 1931, when the USA enjoyed competitive advantage over every other nation, and was coined in the book, The Epic of America by James Truslow Adams.

This brief sentence carries a lot of weight. Jesus commissions, or entrusts, His disciples with delegated authority to go out and share the gospel with the world. Their mission is no different from that committed to Jesus by His Father. Indeed, the Church inherits Jesus’ call to make disciples throughout the world. This forms the basis for Jesus’ final instructions to His disciples following His resurrection. This commission is passed on to all the disciples equally and so we share responsibility today to realise this same commission, acting as faithful, and faith-filled, guides in a confused world.

As disciples of Jesus and embracing His call to mission, the great news is that we need not depend on our own abilities. The power, or simply the capability to be good news, is given by God through the Holy Spirit. Coming from God, it carries His authority. Authority and ability are entrusted to us as God’s ambassadors on earth to serve the purpose of God on earth.

Life slides by at its own pace. Demanding daily schedules mean we can feel we haven’t time to breathe. The older I get the faster time passes, but I also become more aware of my mortality. My end was always in my beginning; now, with some excitement, I can almost taste that end. I’m acutely aware of my opportunities to live good news in my neighbourhood and with family and colleagues. Scripture reveals a world in harmony with itself, with every element giving praise to God. Indeed, Jesus reminded us that when we

Our missional message applies to the whole world. God is creator and Lord of all, for nothing can exist without God. Indeed, time itself is dependent on God’s word, ending at His command. Whilst we must consider and contend with many conflicting worldviews in deciding what we want to believe, we can place full confidence in God’s revelation. That confidence is something we choose to embrace in part, whilst it’s also dependent on God’s grace sustaining us.

Christ’s love compels us to share His message of hope and wholeness for fractured humanity. God’s first question was, ‘Where are you?’ (Gen. 3:9), the question that resounds throughout every generation. Today’s preoccupation with self and the ready availability of so many self-help courses is testimony to the insecurity that runs deep within the human heart.

Mission in the New Testament (NT) means ‘to send’ and implies that we receive authority from the one who sends us. So, just as Jesus was sent and enjoyed the Father’s full authority, here He prays for all of us to know the government of God in and through our lives of obedient service. God’s authority is dependent on our obedience, one reason that it’s so often and clearly stressed throughout Scripture. In sanctifying us, Jesus dedicates us to God and presents us as an offering to God.

If we’re serious in our quest to love and serve Jesus, then we’d best start with Jesus’ chosen mission. He takes these stirring promises from the prophet Isaiah and makes them His mission mandate. There are two clear meanings here. First, He describes those who are entrapped in sin and cannot see spiritual reality. Consequently, they are prisoners to their spiritual poverty and gospel deficit.

Tomorrow we move from prayer to mission. The two are intimately linked since mission is born from prayer. Indeed, as we mission we also pray. Mission is God’s love shared in a broken world. We pray for workers to go out and reap a harvest of those hungry for God’s grace. This request appears to suggest numerical increase, yet Jesus didn’t rapidly expand His team. So it’s best understood as a prayer for each disciple to become more engaged in carrying the gospel to family, friends, neighbours and colleagues.

The good we do in obedience to God runs the risk of becoming a source for our own self-promotion and gratification. Self-congratulation, encouraged by the praise of others, is a temptation we all face. We desire affirmation for the things we do. However, anonymity is taught by Jesus (Luke 5:14). God’s work is clear only to those with eyes and ears to see and hear it.