Praying with Love for the Lost

 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only   Son into the world that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9  NIV

    

   

   This week's SPA contains a very simple idea to help us grow in our love for the lost.   It's written by Margaret Snow, my friend from Community Alliance Church.

Scripture is very clear about God's love for every person in the world.  Help your love for people to grow by praying for the first three people you see when you leave your house each day this week.  It may be the mailman, the driver of the car beside you or your neighbor.  Whoever these three people are, pause for a moment and ask God to help them discover his love and put their full trust in Him.

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.  

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.

Grieving with God

Answer me quickly, O Lord!  My spirit fails!  Hide not your face from me,

lest I be like those who go down to the pit. Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.     Psalm 143:7-8 NIV

  
 Psalm 143 is a great example of pouring out our pain to God while at the same time reaffirming our trust in him.  God is fully aware of our pain and we never need to be afraid of honestly speaking to him about it. In fact, spilling our guts to God can set us free from the hurts that hold us down and steal our energy.
 

   This week, take some time to air out your grief to God.  What is frustrating you?  Are you feeling a painful loss?  Are you angry about some circumstances?  Get alone and talk to God about it in detail.  If you have a journal, write out your pain to God.  Don’t just make a general statement such as “God, I hate what’s going on in my life right now.”  Tell him exactly what you hate and how it is draining you.  After you have poured out your heart to God, take some time to affirm your trust in him.  Remember that he is good and faithful and tell God that even though you don’t understand what’s going on, you still trust him.  If you feel comfortable, you may want to pour out your complaint to God in the presence of a friend.  Affirm your your trust in God to your friend and then have your friend pray for you.