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Day 1 Gospel Stories Devotional

PRAY:

Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.

READ:

This week we took a week off from Romans on Sunday morning. We will be taking a week off from doing Romans in our daily devotional as well.

Several weeks ago, Terry introduced a five part model for living in a missional way. The model included 5 P’s – Pray, Pursue, Prepare, Proclaim, and Plan. For our devotional this week we will ask God to help us grow in devotion to apply that model to our lives.

Today P #1 – Pray for people in your sphere of influence

Philemon 1:6, “I (Paul) pray that you may be active in sharing your faith so that you may have a full understanding of every good thing you have in Christ.”

Ephesians 6:19, “Pray also for me (Paul), that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the Gospel.”

2 Corinthians 4:3-4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of the age has blinded the mind of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

UNDERSTAND:

A simple definition of prayer is personal communication with God. Sometimes we pray out of habit and we can easily give little thought to what we are doing when we pray. When we pray we are communicating trust in God, and it’s through prayer that trust can grow. Much has been and could be written about prayer. But for now, let’s think about prayer in relation to living a missional life and talk through its importance in that light.

In the verses above, Paul says that he is praying for others to be active in sharing their faith. He also asks that others be faithful to pray for him to proclaim the gospel. It seems then from Paul’s example, that we should pray for ourselves and pray for others to actively share the gospel. Paul the great evangelist is still asking for others to pray for him. We will never grow to the place in our lives where we do not need others to pray for us.

We can also be sure because of Paul’s request that living a missional life is spiritual matter. If it was not a spiritual matter, why would Paul pray and ask others to pray? In praying and asking others to pray, Paul is saying, “God help us. I need your help. We need your help.”

Paul realizes, the activity of making the truth of the gospel known is God’s work. We must be in personal communication with Him regarding His work.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul gives us some indication of how we can pray for those far from God. He tells us of the reality that Satan is opposed to the gospel being known and has actually blinded people to the truth of the gospel. This blindness is beyond our ability to cure. In fact without the work of the Holy Spirit, people are actually blind to their own blindness. Any person responding to the gospel is God’s activity. The blinded state that people live in reminds us that living a missional life begins, ends, and only continues through prayer.

APPLY:

Who can you pray for regularly to see the light of the gospel?

Will you commit to pray for yourself and others to be active in sharing your faith?

As you pray for others, look for God to give you opportunity to make the gospel known.

LIVE:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.

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