All too often we treat God as if He were our cosmic grandfather. We want Him to grant us our desires of fortune and comfort. If God were to answer your prayers today, would your family, friends, and neighbors be saved because you prayed for them to be saved today? Or would you have a clean bill of health, a new car, a new house, and your favorite sports team would be undefeated? There is, of course, nothing wrong with praying for the health of our friends and family. There is nothing wrong with praying for the blessings of God on those we know and love. Why not pray then for the ultimate blessing of the security of salvation in their lives?
In Acts 1:8, Jesus commanded us to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. After this, in verse 14 we find that the disciples went back to their gathering place and devoted themselves to prayer. They knew and believed that what they were called to do was to share the Gospel with the entire world around them. Great power had been bestowed upon them and they immediately committed themselves to continuously tapping into that power. They believed in Philippians 4:13. They believed that God would equip them to do anything that He called them to do. Philippians 4:13 does not mean that you will be able to accomplish crazy feats of superhuman strength. It does not mean that you will have access to every outrageous desire of your heart. It means that God will strengthen you to do what you were made to do.
So while we are praying, we should be praying that everyone that we come in contact with will know of the love with which God loves us. When we are praying, we should be considering ourselves an answer to the prayer. The Word of God tells us to pray for the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers into His fields...we are the laborers. The Great Commission says to "Go therefore" but when you study the language, what it actually says is "As you are going" which means that as we are living our lives, we are praying, we are being strengthened to live as we are called, and we are going with intention in our lives to tell as many people about what God has done for us and what He desires to do for them as we can.
Do not say that you cannot share your faith. You can say that you are too fearful or that you are not passionate about sharing your faith. But do not ever say that you cannot. You have been given the power from heaven to share this good news and if you are a follower of Jesus it is not only a commandment, it is a privilege. You can and you must. The president of the Southern Baptist Convention, J. D. Greear, has challenged us to find our "one". Who is that one person or perhaps more than one in our lives we know needs to hear the Gospel boldly proclaimed? Find that "one" and share with them. Pray for them. Do not ever give up.
Prayer is a powerful thing. To pray is to speak to the Creator of the universe. To pray is to have a conversation with the great and mighty omnipotent God. I am challenged today to pray and speak to God and ask Him to do that which only He can. Today, I am asking Him to bring salvation to the lost and dying. Today the average statistic would say that 7 out of every 10 people that live in the U.S. are far from God. Of that seven, there are surely those who would say that they are saved. There are most definitely those who could speak of some time that they walked an aisle or prayed a prayer but their lives do not reflect the transformative power of Christ. I am praying today that I will have the boldness to speak truth into their lives. That God would give me opportunities to share my faith, my testimony, the Gospel. I am praying that we would not go to church but that we would be the church as Christ intended.
Pray and when you are done pray some more and then go and be an answer to prayer.
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