30 Days of Prayer: Day 1 Am I too busy to see?
Take 5 minutes and pray for your city, Ask God to give you His eyes to see the crowds.
30 Days of Prayer: Day 2 “Jesus saw”
When Jesus saw the crowds, his heart broke. Matthew 9:36 reads When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He had compassion on them. To put it another way, he felt compassion for them. I can imagine the heart of Christ that …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 3
Jesus saw the crowds. Jesus felt compassion for the crowds. Matthew explains why. Chapter 9 verse 36: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Sometimes I wonder how I see people who are without Christ. I wonder if I truly see …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 4
Jesus saw the crowds. He felt compassion for them. Because they were as sheep without a shepherd. Then Matthew adds: “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest,” (Matt. 9:37-38). See the harvest. Jesus saw the harvest. For the last …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 5
Prayer sensitizes us to subtle changes in the landscape of our circumstances. – Andy Stanley, Visioneering. Seeing the harvest field A few nights ago, I took a flight home, back to the city where I live. The flight path of our final descent runs us parallel to the city. I got to sit in the …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 6
Shawn Anderson’s research into the conversion process reveals some interesting statistics about evangelism through personal relationships. (Read: Living Dangerously: Seven Keys to Intentional Discipleship) Looking at the time from when Jesus is first mentioned in relationship to the point of a person following Jesus: Fifty-one percent of the time this process took over a year. …
30 days of Prayer: Day 7 The Process of Evangelism
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Cor 3:6-7 (NIV) Paul gives us a great analogy to talk about the conversion process. It picks up on some of the parables …
30 Days of Prayer Day 8: Spiritual Blindness
We were stuck in spiritual blindness before Jesus set us free.
If it has been a long time since that moment, perhaps we've forgotten what that was like.
Today's prayer of gratitude is remembering our salvation and deliverance from darkness to light.
30 Days of Prayer Day 9: The Pearl of Great Price
Jesus give us a parable, found in Matthew 13, about the kingdom of God. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:45-46) Looking for the fine pearl The merchant was …
30 Days of Prayer Day 10: Surprised by Joy
Jesus tells us another parable about the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Matthew 13:44 In contrast to the parable …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 11 Scattering the Seed
Part of our task is to take the word of God and scatter it in the field.
30 Days of Prayer: Day 12 – The mystery of conversion
“Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.” – Mark 4:27 How does the seed grow? I remember science projects I did in elementary school to make seeds sprout. We played with the variables of soil, light, water, and even gravity (by using …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 13 – Conversion process is discernable
I once gave a talk to children at a Bible Camp in Panama. Outside of the covered patio we used as a lecture hall, mango trees were getting heavy with fruit. The mangoes were almost in season. I had picked one bruised and green mango that had fallen on the ground. Turning it over in …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 14 – Harvest
Mark 4:29 – “As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” In the past few days, we have seen the process of evangelism. Sowing the seed into the soil (A farmer sows the seed. . . ) The mysterious process of growth (The seed sprouts …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 15 – The soil
“Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” (Mark 4:8) I’ve recently been meditating on the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-8), or the parable of the soils (Matthew 13:1-9) Jesus uses lots of farming analogies and this one …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 16 – Spiritual Thirst
Jesus declares: John 12:32 — “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” The verb “draw” signifies something of an attraction that leads to a focus or action, perhaps even a change of direction. That attraction is fueled by something within each person that begins to see the beauty …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 17 – Spiritual Thirst Study
Every person comes to Jesus for a different reason. I started my search for Jesus because of a search for unconditional love a purpose greater than my own self. I had no clue that I was a sinner, or that I needed a Savior. Sin is not always the starting point While it is true …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 18 – Common Spiritual Thirsts
In today’s devotional prayer, take your bible and read Ecclesiastes 2. The teacher is a man who experienced tremendous spiritual thirst and chapter two gives us the various ways he tried to fill that emptiness in his heart.
30 Days of Prayer: Day 19 – Woman at the Well
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10, NIV) Jesus has a remarkable insight. He knew the true spiritual thirst of this …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 20 – Spiritual Thirst and Good Works
I volunteered the other day and I had lunch with another volunteer. As we talked about my mother’s recent death, she startled me with the following question. I’ve always wondered, how do religious people deal with death? She wasn’t opposed to religion. She didn’t have a defined set of beliefs of her own. Spiritual Conversations occur …
30 Days of Prayer – Day 21: Tell of All His Works
How has the Lord been good to you? If one of your friends were to ask you today: What has God done in your life recently? Would you be ready with an answer that is not generic? God blesses me. God forgives me. Those are generic statements, versus awesome stories that demonstrate the work of …
30 Days of Prayer: Day 22 – Tell of His Love
My faith has found a resting place, Not in device nor creed; I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need no other plea; It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me. — Hymn, My Faith has found a resting place …
30 Days of Prayer — Day 23: Who is Jesus to me?
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. 1 Peter 2:7 What is precious? I’ve been pondering this word in my devotions this week while looking at the current difficult circumstances of my life. Are the challenges I face now worth the price of my calling to follow my Savior? Is following Jesus worth …