Good morning my fellow prayer partners!
I’d like us to stay focused on John 3:16 again today. What I’d like to point out to you is how difficult it was for the early disciples to understand that God loved “the world”. To hear the words: “For God so loved the world that He gave…” would have required a major shift in their thinking. The Jew of that day thought in terms of God loving Israel, it was not even in their line of sight that God would love the world with all its nations, tribes and people groups.
As Leon Morris in the devotional commentary I am reading put it: “It is a distinctively Christian idea that God’s love is wide enough to embrace all mankind.”
And do you know how this revolutionary idea happened? It happened because of prayer. You can read about it in Acts 10. Luke records that Peter took a short noonday prayer break while lunch was being prepared (Acts 10:10) and during that short prayer break God gave him a vision explaining to him that the good news of the Gospel was for all people. That one little noonday prayer time changed the course of human history.
I think you see where I’m going with this, but let me give you two quick applications for today:
- First: Don’t underestimate what a five-ten minute prayer can do! Pray brothers!
- Second: Expand the focus of your prayer today. It’s easy to get into the “bless mom, dad, jr. and sis today dear Lord” and miss an opportunity to serve others around us that are in need of prayer. Matter of fact, let’s think globally today.
Bottom-line, let’s pray brothers! Let’s change the world.
The ONE THING 