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Trusting God in the Fire

Today we continue our series from the book by Dr. Tony Evans, “Can God be Trusted in our Trials?”

Last week, we shared that the time to look to the savior is not just when things are going well and you’re singing praises, but when the pain is the most intense and you feel like you’re going to collapse any minute. God CAN be trusted in our trials because he’s given us the fuel to press through them.

Today we’re going to share a famous Bible story that really underlies the importance of our faith in our belief as we go through trials. The three Hebrew boys of Daniel 3 were captives of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and that certainly was a trial. Of course, we’re talking about Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Shadrach+Meshach+and+Abednego

The king and made a golden image and declared that everyone in Babylon should bow down and worship it. But these three young Jewish men could not do that without violating God’s commandment to worship no other God, so they refused. King Nebuchadnezzar says in Daniel 3:15 “if you will not worship, you will immediately be cast into the midst of the furnace of blazing fire…and what God is there who can deliver you out of my hands?”

Now as far as the King was concerned, the only options were to bow or burn; but it didn’t ruffle these Hebrew boys because they had a third option: BELIEVE. Dr. Evans loves what they said to the king: “we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter.”

In other words, “this is going to be very quick; we don’t even need to think about it, your highness. We discussed this before we ever took this job and we agreed that if the choice came down to our God or you, you would lose.

If our God wants to, he can deliver us from your fiery furnace, because he is able to do that. But even if he doesn’t, and we roast to death in there, he still the only God and we aren’t going to worship your image.

Now, the important thing is to not skip over that opening phrase in verse 18 “but even if he does not deliver us from the fire.” We love to hear the part about how God delivered them from the fiery furnace and then later delivered Daniel from the Lion’s Den, and that’s okay…

But…the point of Daniel 3:18 is that these three young men realized that God might not choose to deliver them in the way that they had hoped. They understood that if they defied the king, they might get tossed into the furnace. But whatever God chose was fine with them because they believed he would act on their behalf…and they put their faith into action.

When you fix your eyes on Jesus and begin acting as if what He said is true, you are in a win-win situation. To be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord – that’s in 2 Corinthians 5:8. You can’t lose with Christ.

None of us can promise that trusting God will get you out of your crisis. But we can promise that trust in God will keep you from being in your crisis alone. The author of Hebrews said of Jesus, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross;” that’s in Chapter 12 verse 2. The cross was not something Jesus wanted to endure. But he fixed his eyes on his father in Heaven and the joy that would be his when he had accomplished the father’s will.

Dr. Evans wraps up the segment by sharing something that he says hopes will put steel in your backbone and joy in your heart as you go through the trials of life.

The Bible not only says that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God in heaven, but also that we are seated with Jesus in the heavenly places. That’s in Ephesians 2:6. This is not just something we will enjoy someday when we get to heaven. This is our present reality as believers. So if you feel as if you’re about to lose heart in your trial, before you give up, look up and see Jesus seated at God’s right hand.

And that gives you the access to all the God the father has for you. Keep your eyes on Jesus – the author and perfecter of our faith.

Thanks for listening!
– Joe and Todd

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Praise Thursday – Belief in the Trials!

Today we continue our series from the book by Dr. Tony Evans, “Can God be Trusted in our Trials?”

Last week we talked about making sure that faith is at the forefront of trusting God through our trials. This week, we’re going back to the book of Hebrews to get more encouragement. This week, it’s about making sure that we are intentional to get in the race to work with God through our trials.

Dr. Evans, when he refers to “getting in the race,” is writing about making sure we are pushing back against unbelief. Using faith to help us push forward. In Hebrews chapter 4, it reminds us that the struggles of the Israelites, as they journeyed from Egypt to the Promised Land, stemmed from the fact that they had lost their belief in God and they were not united in their faith.

Remember in life, we can anchor a lot of things – we can anchor a swing set, a basketball hoop, a fence post or anything else we want with cement, but it has to be mixed with water to become concrete and hold.

In a shaky situation where you need an anchor for your soul, you need to mix God’s truth with your faith. In other words, you act as if God will provide you with the strength to bear your trial.

Hebrews 12:1 reminds us that once we get rid of the sin of unbelief, that tangles us up so easily, we can run the race with endurance. It’s the same thing that James says in Chapter 1, verse 4: keep going; don’t quit, let endurance have its perfect result.

Sometimes, our response to that is, “but I’m tired.” And that’s true; we all get tired. But God will give us grace to press on for one more day tomorrow and then he’ll meet us again with grace to endure the day after tomorrow.

Remember what Matthew 6:34 says: “do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself.” You may not see anything but the crisis right now, but God’s Word assures you that Christ is in your crisis. And that’s all any of us really needs to know.

Hebrews continues with more wisdom in chapter 12, verse 2, when it reminds us to, “keep our eyes on Jesus the author (or the architect) of our faith; and the perfector (or completer) of our faith.

That means he is everything between the start and the finish of the race called the Christian life. The time to look to the savior is not just when things are going well and you’re singing praises, but when the pain is the most intense and you feel like you’re going to collapse any minute.

God CAN be trusted in our trials because he’s given us the fuel to press through them.

Thanks for listening!
– Joe and Todd

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Praise Thursday – Faith and Trials

We continue our series today on the book, Can God be Trusted in our Trials? by Dr. Tony Evans. Today we’re talking about how our faith taps into God’s power.  A trust in God when we can’t see where he’s taking us, or when it looks like we’re heading toward a cliff is an act of faith.

Faith is the subject of Hebrews 11 – that’s what we’re told in the very first verse: “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction or the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is simply belief in God; having an absolute assurance that he’s completely truthful in everything he says.

God calls us to have faith in an object that is big enough and worthy enough to merit our trust. That object is His own person and His promises.

The reason many of us have small faith, especially when we’re going through trials, is that we think we have a small God.

That’s why the most important doctrine for a Christian to understand is the doctrine of God; because your view of God will determine the size of your faith. Faith is being persuaded that God always tells the truth. So when he says, “I will never desert you or forsake you” in Hebrews 13:5, you can take that promise to the bank.

God never asks anyone to act on so-called blind faith…the message of Hebrews 11 is that many people took God and His word and triumphed even when things were at their toughest. The heroes of Hebrews 11, like Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab and Joshua can say to us, “we’ve been where you are going, we fought and we won the battle; and we can tell you that God is faithful.”

It’s always great to have someone tell us that we can make it, but don’t miss the bottom line of Hebrews 11 and 12. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus, not on the people who have gone before us. We can look at them, but we focus on Jesus.

The truth is that too many Christians are more than willing to put their faith in another human being. More so than in God. We trust doctors and pharmacists when they tell us that what they’re giving us is good for us. We’re making a faith decision to take a medicine that we really know nothing about.  Let’s make the same faith decision about something we KNOW.

Dr. Evans also shares that we must work to become “FAITH WALKERS” not just “FAITH TALKERS.”
Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that without faith, it is impossible to please Him.

Tony Evans tells the story of the farming community that was in a terrible drought and the farmers were in danger of losing their crops. The situation was so bad that they called a special prayer meeting to pray for rain.

Everyone came to the meeting with their Bibles and prayed for 2 hours, but nothing happened, so everyone went home. Everyone except for a boy in the back. He walked outside, looked up and said. “Lord we need rain, we’re in a crisis and you promised to meet our needs, so we are expecting it to rain.”

Soon the clouds begin to form and before long, rain started falling. The boy’s face broke into a huge smile, he pulled out the umbrella had brought to the prayer meeting, opened it up and walked home. The others said they believed in God but this boy acted as if he believed in God.

If you feel like you’re in a drought with your trial, have you come to God with your umbrella and hand ready to hear from Heaven? If we’re living faithless lives, our lives are displeasing to God.  He is not happy with us when we fail to trust him, because nothing can take the place of faith.

You can win whatever battle or crisis you are in right now because you can trust God in your trial. And you have a great cloud of witnesses from the past to remind you that you serve the same changeless, eternally faithful God.

Thanks for listening!
– Joe and Todd

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Praise Thursday: Maturing through Trials

One of the things that Dr. Evans has been writing about (and we’ve been discussing over the last couple of weeks) is the fact that God wants to mature us through our trials.

The basic principle is that trials help us grow up and help us understand that sometimes, our crisis will be a short, momentary interruption. Sometimes these trials will be long-term. Still, God helps us achieve a new level of growth regardless of the length of the trial.

The section we’re talking about today is speeding our spiritual growth and it comes in the book of James. James 1:4 reminds us that God’s purpose for our trials is that we grow until we are “perfect and complete,” or fully mature.

So today we’re going to talk about the difference between physical and spiritual growth.

We all see this.  Sometimes you meet people who have only been Christians for 5 or less years, but they’re more mature spiritually than others who have been saved for 30 years.

So the speed at which we grow is directly related to the speed at which we go in fully committing Our Lives to the Lord.

Dr. Evans gives a couple of practical examples. Two families will experience severe financial trials:

  • The first family, by their own testimony, recognizes that they have not been good stewards of the resources God gave them, and the Holy Spirit convicts them of the need to transfer their trust from money to their Lord. They learn the lesson start giving to God first and trust Him to turn their situation around.
  • The second family keeps saying, “I know I’m supposed to be giving to the Lord but I can’t afford to right now. I was going to start here and start there…” but…they never do it. Now we all understand that emergencies will happen to all of us, but Dr. Evans is talking about believers who have been doing this dance for years and still haven’t grown to the point that they can trust God completely.

Now this illustration can also work the other way. Many Christians say that even though they were doing quite well financially without honoring God, they pay a heavy price in terms of ill-health, ruined marriage, lost peace of mind or serious family problems. And in many cases when they persisted in their lack of faith in God, it resulted in their financial house crumbling down.

In Hebrews chapter 5 verses 13 and 14 there is a difference presented between milk and meat – the diet of babies and adults.

13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

We know that babies can’t take meat because their systems are not mature enough to digest it. The same principle is true in the spiritual realm.

In passages like this, the term milk is generally understood to represent the basic easier doctrines of the faith like sin and salvation. Meat, is the deeper or harder to understand parts of scripture.  So while John 3:16 would be milk, talking about the high priesthood of Jesus in Hebrews 5 and 6 would be meat.

The difference between milk and meat goes deeper than a difference in the amount of Bible knowledge you have in your head. Milk, biblically understood, is elementary teaching about Christ, or understanding what the Bible says.

Meat then, is understanding and applying what the Bible says. When you understand what God is telling you in his word, and when you comprehend what it means and what it requires, that’s great; but when you start applying it to your life practically that’s when you start to flourish.

The other trap we fall into is that we want the meat to happen very quickly and we don’t have the patience to go through day by day, month by month and year by year in the practice that leads to being trained or becoming spiritually mature.

The process takes time. God wants us to emerge from our trials more mature than when we started. God is not going to rush the process he wants us to practice, so we will be fully-trained and ready to go.

The Holy Spirit’s job is to apply Divine truth to your life so you can make Godly decisions between good and bad, right and wrong. Maturity is the ability to make decisions with the truth not just recite the truth.

When there is no ability to make decisions, there is no maturity.

Dr. Evans is trying to remind us that when God sends us on a trial, it’s a practice session. He’s calling us to put into practice on Monday the truth that we said “amen” to on Sunday.

Just like a football team who works hard to execute its plays in practice so that in the real game they can execute properly, God wants us to practice righteousness until our senses are well-trained and we are mature… because the world, our own sinful flesh and the enemy are waiting to resist us.

We become spiritually mature when the information we take in, or the milk, is translated into our daily practice, or the meat. Why can God be trusted in our trials?  Because trials help us develop spiritual maturity, which in turn glorifies God.

THANKS FOR LISTENING!
– Joe and Todd

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Praise Thursday: A New Series!

Today Lilly and I jumped right into a new book that will be a series for the next few weeks!

This book is called ” Can God Be Trusted in Our Trials?” by Tony Evans – That title pretty much sums up what this book is about.

We started where most people start books, chapter one!  This chapter was titled “Our trials have a positive purpose.”

Today on the show we talked about the first two sections of chapter 1.

The first section that we coved was the introduction. This laid the groundwork for what trials are. The “Biblical definition of trials…are adverse or negative circumstances that God either brings about directly or allows in order to develop us spiritually.”

In this introduction, we also shared a verse, that I believe we will be talking about a lot, that is:

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – James 1:2-4 

We sum up this part with the quote “God is not telling us to be joyful about the pain but about the purpose and the outcome of the pain, which is our spiritual completeness and maturity.

We then started the second section, which is titled “Joy Vs. Happiness” – We talked about how happiness is more of a feeling and how our happiness levels can change within a second. “Our feelings respond to the information we are fed to them, whether it is true or not.”

We will be continuing this topic next week!

Thank you so much for tuning in to the Afternoon Drive! – Hannah Radke

 

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Praying for Laborers for the Harvest

Luke 10:2 is a reminder that the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. We are to beseech the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.

What does beseech mean? It means to ask urgently and fervently.

Today in our series inspired by the book The Battle Plan for Prayer, by Stephen and Alex Kendrick, we are being asked to urgently and fervently pray for people to serve in some form of ministry.

Jesus was moved by a deep compassion for people, because all of us experience times where we are hurting, empty, wandering and searching for purpose and meaning.  Matthew 9:36-38 says Jesus had compassion for the crowds, because they were like “sheep without a shepherd.”  That’s us, sometimes, and maybe more than we want to admit.  We’re wandering.  And so many people we come into contact with are also wandering.  So we need ministers of the gospel committed to shepherding the sheep.

Jesus’ solution to overwhelming needs was always prayer.  If we are praying for God’s kingdom to come, then we must also pray for more people to seek that kingdom FIRST and serve that kingdom.

——-

Remember that just one person committed to serving the kingdom and bringing the gospel and God’s Word to people in need can impact marriages, families, businesses, churches and a culture. The books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther are examples of this from the bible.

Too many times we are too caught up in our own personal needs and entertainment and we forget about the spiritually lost. Millions still need to hear the gospel.  Yes, the task seems enormous, but nothing is impossible with God.  His kingdom calling should be a high priority for our prayer life.

Any follower of Jesus is called to be a laborer in God’s harvest field. That labor can take the form of praying, serving, giving and going. When we obey this global mandate, we become part of an army of others who are doing the same.

——–

So, how does this work practically?  Locally, we need to be praying for our pastors. The work they do is eternal and vital, but also draining and demanding. The expectations we sometimes place on them are endless.

But we also know the enemy is constantly on the attack against them.  He tries to wear them down.  Wear their families down. Tempt them. Many of their responsibilities are private – like study and preparation, spiritual counsel and dealing with conflict.  We can pray that the Holy Spirit is their partner in these times that are quiet or confidential.

Ephesians 6:19-20 says:

“19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

So we can pray for protection around our pastor’s heart, marriage and home. That he or she can confidently, freely and unapologetically fulfill his or her ministry. That the Holy Spirit will help them draw many to the Gospel.

You can also pray for pastors from other churches locally, regionally or globally.

——-

Locally and globally, we can also pray for other types of ministries like family counseling ministries, Christian schools and colleges, humanitarian aid ministries and YES, Christian media!  Pray I Corinthians 15:58 over them:

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Pray for present and future missionaries – both domestic and foreign.  Pray that His word and salvation will be known and embraced.  You can ‘pray the word’ again over them – Colossians 4:2-6:

“2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4 Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

Pray for the lost in the nations around the world – God has a heart for ALL the nations!  America and its 320 million people only represent 5% of the global population of 7 billion!

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This week’s prayer:

Lord, give me your heart for the nations.  A heart of love and compassion for the lost. A renewed love of the gospel and a deep admiration and concern for those who are already giving their lives in service to you. Provide for them, encourage them, prosper their work and embolden their hearts. Raise up and equip more workers for Your harvest fields. Fill them with your spirit, deliver them from the evil one and empower them to boldly proclaim and represent You and Your Word to the world, until you return. Help me to be obedient to your voice and do my part in advancing your kingdom on earth.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Thanks for listening!
– Joe

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Praying for Family

This week, as we continue our series inspired by the Kendrick brothers’ book. The Battle Plan for Prayer, we’re focusing on how to do pray for family.

So how do we engage in praying for the ones we love?

If you are married, you start with your wife or your husband. Your marriage is to be a real-life application of the gospel to your children, friends and everyone else who knows you.

Ephesians 5:25 reminds husbands to “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Wives, in verse 22, are asked to support and honor the leadership of their husbands as they would honor the Lord.

What this all means is that we run to Christ for love, joy and peace, then take all of that and pour it into our marriages.  We pray for each other, asking for God to direct when disagreements happen, which they inevitably will.  When that happens, we should be committed to listening respectfully, confessing openly and extending patience and kindness. We should be hard to offend and quick to forgive!

The example we are setting in our marriages is too valuable to let the voices of other people become more important than our spouse’s voice.

We can also pray that our spouse is devoted to Christ, surrendered to following His Word and His lordship. We can pray that each of our spouse’s relationships are marked by love and unselfishness, especially the ones that are strained.  We can pray for peace, healing and restoration where things are broken.

We can pray that God would keep our spouse clearly aware of God’s desires, knowing how to handle each day’s decisions. We can pray that God keeps us, as their partner, attuned to their needs so we can be a voice of clarity in their lives.

We can pray David’s prayer in Psalm 20:4 for our spouses: “May He give you what your heart desires and fulfill your whole purpose.”

The Lord will guide our marriages as we are more specific in our praying for them.

Satan is in the business of causing confusion in our families, so we must pray against that.

The enemy also wants to confuse our kids, distract them, apply unneeded pressure to them and doubt their sense of worth and identity.

Our role as a parent is to stand in the gap of these areas, listening to our children and knowing the condition of their hearts.  Praying with our kids, with our arms around them and then praying for them even when they are not physically with us.

We are to intercede for our children in prayer for their protection, their friendships, their character and their ability to stand up to temptation.  Our children may not realize the level of spiritual opposition to claim their eyes and their interests.  Ephesians 6:12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

But WE KNOW the level of opposition. We’ve felt it. So…defend your kids in prayer. Claim God’s promises of victory in their lives. Pray for God’s spirit to go ahead of them wherever they may be. That they may draw others to Him.

If your kids are older, then pray that they will remain faithful to God in their generation, love him and keep His commands, like it talks about in Deuteronomy 7:9. Oh, and all of this also applies to our grandchildren!

Alex and Stephen share in this chapter that the Psalmist was thinking about multiple generations when he wrote:

“so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
 Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.”

Just like we’ve shared throughout this series, we can ask God to ‘unlock’ the Word so that we can pray specifically for our family and future generations.

The battle plan for prayer for your family is simply awaiting your dedicated attention to it!  To make it a priority…to make your family a prayer target.  Prayer is the most effective investment we can make along with all the other ones, like love, time, physical and emotional support, sweat equity and financial generosity.

Today’s prayer:

Lord, I bring my family before you today – their needs, struggles, their goals, their concerns, their present and their future.  These loved ones of mine are actually yours, Lord, and you have graciously shared them with me. Help me to best express my gratitude to you by never failing to pray for them, to seek your will for them, and to ask for your wisdom as I relate in love and loyalty towards them.

Give me discernment as to their physical and spiritual needs in each season, and help me faithfully lift them up to you in faith, love and in the power of the Holy Spirit. May many generations be blessed because of my prayers.  In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Our Christmas Gift Exchange winners are Jeff from Mount Vernon and Brenda from Fredericktown – congratulations!

Thanks for listening!
– Joe and Hannah

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Praying for Other Believers

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“Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.” (Philemon 7)

Perhaps some of the most commonly spoken words from one Christian to another are “I’ll be praying for you. “And perhaps the most commonly unspoken words are the prayers that would have been said if those promises were truly kept.

This week in our series inspired by The Battle Plan for Prayer, Alex and Stephen Kendrick remind us of the importance of praying for other believers.

We need each other‘s prayers. It’s one of the most loving things we can do for each other. Your brothers and sisters in Christ, at any challenging point in their lives, need to be able to take a deep breath and realize they’re not alone; that their Christian family has their back. They need the assurance that you and others are praying. Especially if you said you’d be praying.

Paul described this as being “on the alert. “Something we do “at all times.” We pray “with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:18)  Notice how all- encompassing this command and expectation is.

The early church in Acts was so involved with one another they were constantly “taking their meals together,” enjoying what the Bible describes as “gladness and sincerity of heart”.  As a result, despite a rash of persecution and life-threatening challenges in the days that followed, we see God’s spirit working miracles among them. We read about bold witnesses for Christ. We read about people coming to faith by the dozens. We see sin exposed and repented of.  We see teamwork. We see abundant generosity and unselfishness. We see regular demonstrations of God‘s power. We see everything we wish happened in our day, in our churches…

…And one of the ways we can contribute most effectively to a revival of church unity today is through the active practice of praying for each other as believers. It heals us. It unites us as one.

Almost all of Paul’s letters in the New Testament were written to different churches. But no matter how close his personal relationship with them, he wrote assuring them that he was genuinely, consistently, perfectly, praying for them.  Romans 1: 9-12, Philippians 1:3-4; the book of Colossians, they all show examples of this.

Our routine should follow the faithful footprints of this example. Encouraging other believers. Thanking God for them. Worshiping with them. Bringing their concerns before the Lord, both physical and spiritual.

You can use The Lord’s Prayer as an example of how to pray for others…

“Father in heaven, I pray for my brother (my sister),  praising your name for them, asking you to fill their hearts with worship for you today. May their primary desire always be to advance your kingdom, wherever they happen to be, whatever they happen to be doing.
May they align themselves on the earth with your will, just as surely as you’re will is followed and accomplished in heaven.
Provide them, I pray, with their daily bread – with everything you know is required for them to thrive and be cared for. And grant them repentance, forgiving them of their sins even as you forgive me of mine.
Keep their relationships free from bitterness and difficulty as we forgive those who sin against them. Please, Lord, protect them from temptation, from allowing them to be overloaded with adversity.
I deliver them from all evil, from every scheme and attack of the enemy, from every weapon intended to defeat and discourage them. For yours, Lord, is the kingdom,  The power, the glory, forever. You have already given them victory through the finished work of Christ. So I pray for them today, and I pray in his name, amen.”

Now that’s strategically targeting a prayer.

Too often, prayer request times between believers become: “Pray for my aunt’s kidney condition. Pray for my cousin’s colon cancer. Pray for my brother’s big toe.” And while we all need and appreciate prayer towards physical health, we must be careful not to prioritize temporary physical needs over eternal spiritual ones.

The apostle Paul prayed for God to reveal his will and love, to strengthen and equip people toward spiritual fruitfulness and for them to increase in their knowledge of God and faithfulness to God. We can learn so much about how to pray for one another.

Think of how a commitment to prayer for our fellow believers could energize our relationships and our shared sense of mission.

 

CLOSING PRAYER: “Lord, thank you for the church you’ve given me, and for the friends and families you’ve enabled me to know shared faith in Christ. I pray you would cement our relationships even further by helping us commit to pray for one another. Lord, be pleased by how we love and care for each other. May your name be glorified as you work in our midst. We will be watching you, and we will be praising you. Bless us, I pray, that the world would see your power and the difference you make in our lives. Amen!”

Thanks for listening!
-Joe, Hannah and Lilly

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Praise Thursday: Praying for the Lost

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20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

2 Corinthians 5:20 is a great reminder that as believers, we should place a high priority on praying for the lost – those who haven’t put faith in Jesus Christ and haven’t established a relationship with him.

This week, as we continue our series inspired by the Kendrick brothers’ book. The Battle Plan for Prayer, we’re focusing on how to do this: pray for the lost.

If we’re honest, we pray for ourselves more than we pray for anyone else. After all, who among our friends and family knows our hopes, struggles, and concerns more completely than we do? Our next prayer targets, after ourselves, are most likely the people closest to us, followed by other friends and relatives.

In Romans 10, Paul shared his heart’s desire and prayer for the salvation of the people. Then in I Timothy 2:4, we learned that God wants “all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Even John 3:16 proclaims that God‘s love motivated him to send his son for the salvation of people all over the world.

So there’s no question God is pleased and glorified when people turn to him and receive him by faith, through Jesus Christ.  It should challenge us to pray for the lost.

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So we know we should pray for the lost.  We know from 2nd Corinthians that God “reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation”, so here’s a question: why aren’t we praying fervently and faithfully to that end?

One reason? The enemy stands against us and our prayers. His plan is to prevent as many people as possible from hearing and receiving the good news. 2 Corinthians 4: 3-4 says, “our gospel…is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is in the image of God.” Satan knows he’s lost the war. His desire now is simply to cause much damage as he can… While he can.

BUT…we can stand against him in prayer, asking God to open the eyes of the lost and reveal to them their need for a savior.  We can ask him to send us and others to tell them about his love and forgiveness. When we embody the fruit of the spirit, and live gentle, patient lives with a clear testimony and lifestyle, Paul said “perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2: 25-26)

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Our prayers against the enemy’s tactics, along with our obedience to Christ, can create opportunities for more people to hear and understand the truth of the Gospel. That’s why Paul asks the church: “devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of Thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; that I may proclaim it clearly.” (Colossians 4:2-4)

God can be trusted to grant us these openings to share our testimony of how Christ has changed our life.  Our story can open the hearts of others.  We can pray for these opportunities! When we pray and look for them, we won’t have any trouble spotting them. But we must be ready and willing to take advantage of them when they appear. This leads us to the next part of our prayer strategy: readiness.

When the time comes to open our mouth and speak, we need the boldness to say what ought to be said. Paul prayed in Ephesians 6:19, “Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth will make known with boldness the mystery of The Gospel.” We need the same kind of readiness and confidence that Paul had.  The challenge is to not allow embarrassment or the fear of rejection to stop us from sharing the most important message in the universe. Otherwise, we’re communicating, “my comfort level is more important to me than your salvation. “

That’s why we should pray for boldness like Paul…not to overwhelm people by our intensity…but so that we won’t back down from saying what God leads us to say with the right heart and demeanor. The Holy Spirit does what only he can do: bring repentance.

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Jesus himself said the reason he came to earth was to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10.) As part of his body on the earth today, we can view this as a critical part of our purpose. In everything we do, and every situation, we need to be ready to share the love of Christ with a lost, dying world.

But, our prayer shouldn’t be limited only to those within our area of influence. Let’s pray for people we will never meet. Pray for missionaries to be given the boldness to share. Pray for leaders to hear the gospel. Pray for those in the spotlight and who influence. Pray for the unreached people groups who desperately need someone to come share the good news with them.

So how do we pray for the lost? We pray for God to begin working in their hearts to prepare them to receive the truth. We pray against the enemy that he would be prevented from blinding their eyes and hearts. We pray for opportunities and boldness, both for ourselves and others, to share the gospel with them.

We pray for conviction of sin to agitate their hearts, bringing about true repentance and a desire for Christ’s cleansing.  And we pray for God‘s blessing, guidance, protection, and the presences to be on all of those who obey him and who keep him.

The awareness that we were also once lost should raise our urgency to pray. Time is limited. Opportunities may be limited as well. So let’s obey what God has called us to do:

The word boldly and freely declares in Romans 10:13, “for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And we get to be a part of it. Through prayer.

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, give me a greater heart for the lost, a heart that doesn’t ignore them or work around them, but rather breaks for them. Hurts for them. Guard me from even subtly downplaying their need for you…or considering their salvation someone else’s job to worry about.

Open my eyes as I travel throughout each day, watching for you to open doors so I can give effective testimony to your goodness and faithfulness.

And do battle against our enemy, oh Lord; that he would not succeed in blocking the truth from getting through to those who are dying without it, without you.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of this kingdom priority. Help me see it is a privilege, not a burden – willing to sacrifice for the incredible sacrifice you made for me.  

 

 

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