LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Historically, only a few weeks have passed since Jesus preached His first sermon of good news to the people.  He already has a following that totals well more than 12 disciples. A disciple is one who is a learner, or pupil, seeking to know and understand the spiritual philosophy of a teacher or rabbi. Out of all these eager learners Jesus needed to select a few who would be designated as apostles, or commissioned messengers of the good news. This was an incredibly important decision, and Christ models for us the one-step plan of how to make such choices – PRAY!

Luke 6:12-13 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles.

Every day we are confronted with choices in such areas as finances, health, relationships, and recreation. While all those things are important, none is so important as this – to whom will I tell the good news today? As we pass people in the mall, in checkout lines, or communicate with them at work, who will God have us talk to about His Son? We have no greater resource with which to answer that question than the direction of the Holy Spirit available through prayer.

I’m sure that most of us spend time daily taking personal needs to God in prayer. Interruptions and inconveniences that arise throughout the day cause us to send up a quick request to our heavenly Father to give us the strength to carry on. We probably even ask Him for a specific outcome, hoping He will respond positively to our request for our objectives to be met. (Isn’t that amazing, that before we even ask Him to reveal His will and purpose we are asking Him for our outcomes.  That’s another issue for another day.)

But how many of us take the time every day to ask God to use us in a specific way to accomplish what He has already revealed to be his will and purpose – to share the good news? God has prepared people to be brought across our path every day so that we might touch them with His grace and love. Yet we tend to pass this off as insignificant when compared to our jobs or finances or health or pleasure.

Jesus didn’t. He spent the whole night in prayer asking God for specific direction in choosing those men who would become apostles. That should be our model also. Maybe you don’t need to stay up all night praying, but why not try this – make the last thing you pray before you go to sleep and the first thing you pray when you wake up a request to be directed to the person that God wants to call into His Kingdom. You can still pray about all the other things, as you should and as God desires, but make the prayer for the unsaved your priority. Followed it with a prayer for spiritual sensitivity and strength to share the good news with the people God brings you.

Prayer is the one-step plan to personal evangelism. Start praying.

Pastor John