A tentmaker missionary in Morocco struggled with the issue of dying for Christ. He shares these words:
Ahmed came to see me one day, honestly sharing his fears with me about following Christ. He asked, “What if I go to prison?” This kind of question had always intimidated me, I wasn’t sure that I could ask someone to be willing to go to prison when I myself had never gone. Yet now I realised that it was Jesus who was calling him to take up his cross and follow, not me. This was between Ahmed and the Lord.
A thirty-two-year-old pastor works in upper Egypt, an area of intense persecution for Christians. He runs a day care centre, a medical clinic, a literacy training program as well as caring for the families of those in prison. He has been beaten twice by Muslim extremists and threatened daily with death. He knows they are trying to kill him…but he continues to daily bear his cross.
A leading pastor in Egypt shared about a parishioner who tearfully came for counselling. Young people she had trained at her work were recently promoted to be her supervisors. She was passed over solely because she was a Christian. The pastor concluded, “That’s the cross we must bear here in Egypt!”
The essence of these examples is that instead of exercising and asserting my will, I learn to cooperate with God’s wishes and comply with His will.