A Heart in Sync with God's Goodness

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.      Luke 19:10 NIV

    

    One mark of a true follower of Christ is a sincere  desire to become more like Jesus in both heart and action.  When we received Christ, our hearts were renewed and we received a fresh appetite to do God’s will.  While we are not perfect,  we do want to have more and more of God’s goodness in us.  We want to live in harmony with God’s good will.

   In Luke 19:10, we have a clear description of Christ’s passion “to seek and save the lost.”  If this is Christ’s passion, that means God has planted this same desire in us.  It may flicker at varying degrees of intensity, but the spark of love for the lost is in our hearts.  How can we fan the flame of this  love?

   One of the simplest ways to fan this flame is to  pray for specific lost people that we know.  Who do you know that has not been restored to a relationship with God?  The issue is their heart toward God.  Do they trust him or ignore him?  You will find lost people among both the naughty and the nice.  A rule follower can be just as lost as a rule breaker.   The story of the prodigal son teaches this to us.

  This week, set aside a few moments to ask God to give you a burden to pray for 2-3  people who have not discovered the joy of a restored relationship with God.  Write their names down and commit to praying for them at least once a week.  To further strengthen your love for the lost, choose a country in North Africa or Asia where there are many who don’t know  the true God and commit to praying at least once a week for people in that country to repent and turn to God through Christ.  

Let Your Light Shine!

 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.    Matthew 5:16  NIV

    

    Most people will not discover the amazing love, infinite wisdom and unique greatness of God unless God’s people glorify Him by letting His light shine through them.  If people don’t discover His greatness, they will not trust Him and experience his life-filled goodness in this life.  And if they don’t trust Him during this life, they will not have the opportunity to experience His goodness in eternity either.  God has called us to surrender completely to His goodness so that we can enjoy it AND so others can see His greatness through us and put  their trust in Him.

    What opportunities has God given you to display his goodness?  How can you reflect the greatness of God this week?  What good deed (with no strings attached) can you do?    Make a plan to let your light shine in some way that stands out this week.  What kindness can you share?  What sacrifice can you make on behalf of someone else?  Ask God to empower you to let His light shine this week!  He loves to answer this prayer.

Connecting with God's Global Mission

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples.  For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord  endures forever.  Praise the Lord.        

Psalm 117 NIV

    

    

   We usually think about God’s love in personal terms.  What slips out of  our minds is that God loves every single person in the world as much as he loves us.  Every American.  Every Arab.  Every Russian.  Every Indian. Every man, woman and child. 

    

   It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that God so loves the WORLD.  What can we do to keep God’s love for every person in the world in the forefront of our minds and in the center of our hearts? 

    

   One simple step we can take is to pray while looking at a map of the world.  This week, take a few minutes each day to pray in front of a map of the world.  Pick any one of the almost 200 countries in the world and then pray for it’s people.   Use the Lord’s Prayer to guide your prayer for this country.

• Pray for people to come to peace with their Heavenly father through Christ.

• Pray for people to see the unique greatness (hallowedness) of God.

• Pray for God’s kingdom to come and His will to be done in this country as it is in heaven. 

• Pray for believers to have the daily bread they need to do God’s will

• Pray for believers to confess their sin and to forgive others.

• Pray that believers would not be led into temptation

• Pray for believers to be delivered from the evil one. 

    

   After you have done this for a week, make a plan for how you will regularly pray for people in the rest of the world to know and trust God’s love.