That they may be saved

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer

to God for Israel is that they may be saved."

     Romans 10:1 (NKJV)

"Therefore I exhort first of all that

supplications, prayers, intercessions, and

giving of thanks be made for all men,

for kings and all who are in authority . . .

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 Timothy 2:1, 3 (NKJV)

Paul had a deep longing for people to be saved, as does our Lord, and he exhorted others to share this prayer burden.  The reality of the righteous judgment of God to come is sobering and scary; it should motivate us to pray for people we know who are not saved.

Most of my intercessory prayers are for salvation and there are people who’ve been on my list for years, but I’ve not seen evidence that any of them have turned to Christ---yet.  It's easy to become discouraged when we don’t see answers to our prayers.  That’s the wrong attitude because it assumes we have the right timing, that we know the big picture, when we don’t. God’s ways and timing are perfect; ours are not. We have to trust Him to answer how and when it’s right according to His plan. And remember--delays don’t necessarily mean denials. 

When we pray for someone’s salvation, it is a spiritual battle because the devil works hard to oppose those prayers.  But we can’t give up.  Salvation is too important—it’s all-important!  When we pray for someone to be saved, we know that is a prayer that God loves to hear and answer. So we should not lose heart when we don’t see any breakthrough, even when it takes a long time. Trust that God is working behind the scenes in ways that we can’t see or know. Trust that the victory will come, in His time and in His way.  And keep on praying!

I didn't come up with this list but thought I'd share some ways to pray for people who are unsaved:

--They would have a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19);

--They would come to Christ (John 14:6);

--Their hearts would be opened to believe the Gospel (Acts 16:14);

--They would be granted repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25-26);

--Their eyes would be unblinded to see the glory of Christ (2 Corinth. 4:4);

--They would respond to the Holy Spirit's conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8).

I'm sure there are many more that could be added here, but I hope this is helpful.  Intercessory prayer is a privilege and a glorious burden, to plead for the souls of those we know and love. . .that they may be saved. 

Thursday Devotional - Battles a Blessing?

Do you think of battles as blessings? I don’t, certainly not while I’m going through the battle.

Joshua faced one battle after another. God could have rained down hail on all the Canaanites or had an earthquake swallow them up, but He didn’t. He chose to work through Joshua and the Israelites one battle at a time in order to give them the wonderful land He had promised.

Joshua 11:18-20 and 23     ¹⁸ Joshua waged war against all these kings for a long time. ¹⁹ Except for the Hivites living in Gibeon, not one city made a treaty of peace with the Israelites, who took them all in battle. ²⁰ For it was the Lord himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses…

²³ So Joshua took the entire land, just as the Lord had directed Moses, and he gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their tribal divisions. Then the land had rest from war.

Not only did Joshua face one battle after another, by God’s design, but God had the enemies start the conflict! I’m not rejoicing when conflict arises, but God can use it to help us grow, mature, learn and experience the blessings He has for us on the other side!

What battle is going on in your and my life right now that God might be using to eventually bring blessings?

God had Joe and me battle infertility for about 9 years because He was paving the way for us to adopt James and Sarah! Plus, He had lots of ways for us to grow closer to Him and to each other through the struggles.

What battle has God blessed you through in the past?

Let’s remember these blessings as we face new battles.

Alice

Relationship Over Ritual

Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts; the incense of your offerings disgusts me! As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days for fasting— they are all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings.  Isaiah 1:13

My daughter came to me the other day, and said, “Dad, you know I love you.”  You would think that after 13 years, she would know that I’m keenly aware something else comes after that.  However, with each passing year she gets a little more adept at saying it.  It’s gotten to the point that to the outsider, they would say, “Awe!  That is so adorable!  You have an amazing daughter!”  To be honest, she is just that; an amazing and growing young lady.  I’m still trying to figure out how I ended up with all the strong-willed black women in my life (mom, wife, both daughters).  But of course, as the verse that prefaces this devotion would suggest it is not the point of this story.  She really loves me, and I know this.  However, the pressing need for this one is to try to get her friend to spend the night.  “I don’t know, Mya,” I reply.  Immediately, she subtly says, “Ok,” as she senses weakness for a flat out ‘No’ means she has to plea much harder.  This time, I let her have her way because despite the fighting and various tete-a-tete’s we have had, she has learned to reign in her emotions a bit more.  It’s the obedience to authority as much as her love that I want her to have, and while ever slowly, she is surely starting to get the hang of it.

God places a high value on obedience to Him.  In the book of Isaiah, there was lots of prophesying of Christ to come and save us.  However outside of that, it was a pretty bleak and dark time as God was using Isaiah to speak of His utter disappointment with the people of Israel.  He was so disappointed that He compared them to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (see Isaiah 1:10).  In case you are not as familiar with those places, they were the places God burned to ashes because of their disobedience.  Not the two places you want to be parallel to, right?  In the verse today, God was seemingly throwing His hands in the air saying the Israelites’ offerings were not good enough.  But again, the replay referee comes, and says, “After further review,” it’s not the gifts, celebrations, or days of fasting that bothered Him.  It is the actions done without true love and devotion toward Him!  It is exactly like my daughter saying, ‘I love you’ only when she wants something.  God shouldn’t be ‘God’ when we are desperate for His help or desire something.  It is not that we should not pray for those things.  What the verse today says is that we are to love and be obedient to Him regardless of His provisions.  It is then that He is responsive.  He is then not only gracious but also abundant in His blessings.

Loving God and His authority must come first and foremost for that is key to the kingdom.  With love of Him comes following His word, allowing Him to use us for His purpose, and a higher love for others than we could find on our own.  These are easy things to know, but without guidance and consistent practices to stay faithfully obedient, we could easily end up as the Israelites when Isaiah spoke to them.  Let us make a commitment to focus on having an authentic, loving, and selfless relationship with the one true living God.  Where are you falling lax in your spiritual growth?  What disciplines can you put in place to avoid going through the motions in your walk of faith?  My prayer is that we focus on the relationship over rituals.  Amen.

Parents know all

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

As kids, we would do something wrong then try to hide it from our parents.  It never worked though. They always seemed to find out.  Of course, how much trouble I would get in would depend upon what I had done.  Now, as a parent, I find myself often telling my son that if something happens, he will get in less trouble if he tells me right away, rather than me having to find out on my own. 

While God is all knowing and we can’t hide anything from him, I believe he feels the same as any parent in the sense that he wants us to come to him and tell him what we have done wrong.  When we confess our sins to him, he will forgive us.

Today I encourage you to be open with God and confess your sins.