Passion & Prayer

About one-half of the world has never heard that Jesus died for their sins. Most of them have never even heard His Name. Our purpose is to speak on behalf of these unreached people of the world.

Paul said in Romans 15:20 that he had earnestly given his life (strived) to preach the gospel “not where Christ was named.” This is our passion and this is the passion we are striving to stir up in the church. The Great Commission was given five times. It was not a suggestion, but a commission. It must not be treated as another part of the program of the church, but it must be accepted as the marching orders of the church. Reaching the uttermost parts of the world must become the heartbeat of the people of God because it is the heartbeat of God.

No church should settle for throwing a few dollars each month to missionaries from other churches who solicit our support. We must never be content until we are sending our own to those people of the world who are still waiting to hear His name. This will require prayer, prayer and prayer. Jesus told us to pray for laborers for His harvest. Praying for God to call missionaries from our church should be as normal and regular as praying, “thank you Lord for this food.” It must become habit.

Prayer was not given to us primarily so we can get what we want from God, but its primary purpose is so God can get what He wants from us. It is through our prayer relationship that God is able to work in our hearts and place His desires in us. It is through prayer that God is most active in changing us and bringing us to the place where we want what He wants more than we want what we want. And it is through the praying of a church that God calls men and women to go to the harvest field (Acts 13:1-3).

Let us lift up our eyes and get them off of ourselves and our little world. Someone quipped, “He who is wrapped up in himself lives in a very small world.” Let us look on the fields and see what God sees – a great big world full of billions of souls for whom He died. May we allow God to put in our hearts the passion HE feels for their souls. And may that passion drive us to our knees in obedient prayer for the unreached.