Pray For…

It’s so easy to get caught up in praying for myself, my family, my friends, and my church family.

 

While it’s true, we should continuously pray for those closest to us, our prayers should extend outside of our family and friends. We should pray for our leaders, including pastors, supervisors, government officials, police officers, and oh yes, by the way – we should pray for everyone. Yes, you read correctly, the Lord expects us to pray for everyone.

The Lord recently convicted me, reminding me that my prayers have not been broad enough. What a wake up call. It’s a call that I answered and take seriously. He’s calling you too right now to extend your boarders.

The problem with many of us is that we look around and complain about the happenings in the world. How quickly we forget that we know the answer to every injustice, crime, immorality, infirmity, mental illness and poverty.

 

There’s One answer. For there is ONE God, and ONE mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. (2 Tim. 2:5)

God wants us to have His heart for the world, not condemnation, but mercy, just as He has mercy on us. He desires that we pray for everyone!

Therefore I exhort first of all that you make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings for everyone, for kings and for all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty,  for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. 2:1-4)

Its starts with us. Let us humble ourselves and pray and seek His face, turning from our sins. Then the Lord we hear us, forgive our sins and heal our land. Let us pray! II Chronicles 7:14.

Witness or Watcher

Just watching the news is enough to derail one’s peace of mind in exchange for a state of depression. Wars and rumors of wars, disease, famine, political mayhem and natural disasters take center stage as the prophecies of old are fulfilled (Matthew 24).

Seeing these prophecies come alive in our day is astounding. At this point in time, we can become captivated by events and forget about our part in His – story, or history, so to speak.

This is exactly what happened to the disciples. In the book of Acts we find the disciples asking, “Lord, at this time are You going to restore the kingdom to Israel”?

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (‭‭Acts‬ ‭1:7-8‬ ‭NIV‬‬)

The Lord did not plan for us to be consumed with the times. Indeed, He warned us to be aware of the times. (Revelations 3:10, II Timothy 3:1-7). However, our main focus should be our witness, our profession of faith. We are the proof, the witnesses, that testify that the Lord is real. In our homes, at work, and wherever we go, our lives should say that God is real, and that God is love.

Like the disciples, we too received power to be witnesses.  “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”John‬ ‭1:12‬ ‭KJV‬‬.

The question is, do our lives witness/testify about the Lord? Or have we just become watchers, focused upon constantly checking the times?

Go Tell It!

Usually around Christmas time we hear and sing “Go Tell It On The Mountains”. It reminds us that we are to tell, to speak of Christ’s birth. Christmas provides a great opportunity to “tell it”, but so does each day. Christ was born so that we would be re-born, living lives that honor Him. This is also a part of the story that we should tell!

Recently I spent time with a friend who loves the Lord. Occasionally she has told me about decisions that she made that are not as the saying goes ” What Jesus would do”.

Sometimes I uncomfortably excused myself, saying she knows wrong from right. As the Lord would have it, I was given another opportunity to “tell it” so to speak. I prayed quickly and was surprised by what happened next.

I spoke about the Lord’s love of integrity, and how He supports us when we do things His way. My friend agreed! I was thrilled, but more importantly, The Lord was pleased!

You may be looking for an opportunity to tell it on the mountains that Jesus Christ is born and that’s great! However, I urge you to recognize that daily, we are given opportunities to “tell ” those around us.

We are to tell that Jesus Christ was born so that we would be reborn into lives that continuously glorify and honor the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. May we daily seize the wonderful opportunities we are given to “tell it”!

Do Now!

I have been fortunate enough to know people who are world changers. These people have completely altered their parts of the world for the better. Though some of these world changers have suffered great hardships along the way, they have persevered, allowing the good to outweigh the bad and given their all to help others.

For example, years ago, one woman fought against strong opposition to celebrate Black History in a New York City public school. Years later, the annual celebration still continues. There’s the mother of one, who so passionately pours into guiding youth that she’s fondly called mom by the children she’s taken under her wings. There are the men who spent time in prison and now spend their lives steering others away from criminal activity.

While it’s wonderful that these people and many others have done great things to bless mankind, I am compelled to take a close look at my own life in order to determine what I have done to make the world a better place. What about you?

The encouraging scripture that comes to mind regarding my own days gone by is, “forgetting those things which are behind me, I PRESS TOWARDS the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13).

In light of this scripture, it’s not so much about what I have done or what you have done to make this world a better place. More importantly, what we are doing today as agents of change? You’ve heard it said time and time again, ” today is a gift”. Frankly, today is all that we have (James 4:13).

So what can You and I do today to enhance our part of the world?

Each of us were created with unique gifts and talents that are meant to glorify God and to bless others. The scriptures tell us “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” ‭‭(Ephesians‬ ‭2:10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

Just what are the “good works” that you were created to do in order to touch your part of the world? If you’re still working on figuring that out, pray for direction. Ultimately, we want to hear the words, “well done my good and faithful servant” (Luke 19:17). And we will hear those words, if we begin to be change agents in our part of the world NOW!