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Neither is there an easy way to handle the news we received from a missionary friend of long standing just a week or so later. Our friend confessed to immorality, told us he had to leave the mission field with his wife and children, and said he was undergoing counselling.
Ordinarily, we might think that cancer is worse than immorality, that chemotherapy is worse than counselling for chronic sin. I'm not so sure. One thing I am sure of: Normally we tend to pray more about our physical health than we do about our moral and spiritual health. We tend to ask God to protect our missionaries from a host of ills, but we do not usually ask God to protect them from sins of the flesh.
When I received my friend's letter, the first thing I did was rebuke myself for not praying for his sexual purity. I've prayed for his support to come in, for his visas to be granted, for God to bless his work and use him mightly--but not for him to be kept pure. The things I asked God to do for him were good things, right things, helpful things, but my prayers did not cover the full scope of his needs. I should have known this from the counsel the apostle Paul gave to his teammates. He did not shy away from warning them about the perils of sex and money, for example.
One reason we do not pray for our missionaries' sexual purity is that we mistakenly assume they will not be tempted and, if they are, surely they will resist. After all, they are godly people called to serve the Lord. That's true, but they are still human beings, subject to the devil's attacks through every conceivable means. When we look at the record, we have to admit that more than a few missionaries have succumbed to sexual temptations. I don't want to picture this as a moral epidemic, but I do want to raise our consciousness when it comes to praying for missionaries and other Christian leaders. In our private prayers, we must ask God to make them morally strong and pure. We must ask Him to give them the strength and courage to resist temptation when it hits them.
The typical missionary is no different from the rest of us. We know what battles we face in a sexually perverted society in North America. In some parts of the world, missionaries are subjected to even worse sexual provocations. Their hearts and minds must constantly be infused with the Holy Spirit. Sometimes, the busyness and exhaustion of their ministries make them more prone to fall into sin. Their minds go wacky when they are away for long spells. They do things that ordinarily they would never even think about doing.
Our missionaries need power in ministry and in personal holiness. We all do. When we commit ourselves to pray faithfully for missionaries and for each other, we must enlarge the scope of our praying to include resistance to immorality of all kinds--not just sexual temptations. This is a crucial part of our commitment to them and to Christ.
Jim Reapsome was formerly editor-at-large for Pulse and Evangelical Missions Quarterly. This article is reprinted, with permission, from the Sept. 4, 1998 issue of Pulse, Box 794, Wheaton, IL 60189. A free sample and subscription information for this newsletter on global mission will be sent to anyone requesting it.
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