O God who saw a world to fill with glory And then made it by your word, You have seen a new world to fill with glory Poured in by Christ the living Word Topped off by the redeemed of every nation
Lord, I long to see that world.
Yet you have not spoken that world into being No, you have chosen instead To speak your word through unclean lips To pour your glory through leaky wineskins To win it all through the weak and needy
Lord, I am often weak and needy.
I know you will see your vision through I know it, or I wouldn't be here still But I have been around the block enough to know This is a vision so big That only you could accomplish it
Lord, I believe—help my unbelief.
I live in a ministry that demands immediate results But it's slow work I live with a burden to see the lost saved But I cannot save I live with an urgency to mobilize your church But she seems distracted I live with a longing to be sent myself But here I am I live to befriend those who are going But they leave me I live to pour myself into this work But I grow tired
Lord, I am not sufficient for these things.
So I look to you who bids me come Again and again and again Whose only requirement for grace Is to come weak and needy Empty to be filled
Lord, I need the same gospel I hold out to others.
You invite me to rest and wear your yoke The tool for working oxen I confess it is a strange analogy And yet it is an easy and light burden When I see that you do the heavy lifting
Lord, your finished work secures that which is unfinished.
O God who saw in me a vessel to fill with glory Here again I offer back that which you have first given My strength, my weakness, my everything Pour through me Christ the living Word And top off your world with redeemed from every nation.
Amen.
Bradley is a missiologist, pastor, and trainer. He has been at Upstream since 2014, producing blog and social media content, authoring The Sending Church Defined: Second Edition and Receiving Sent Ones During Reentry: The Challenges of Returning "Home" and How Churches Can Help, and serving as a board member. He is also the lead pastor at Antioch Church. As a former global sent one, Bradley reflects on missions and formation at Broken Missiology.