We must identify with those in need, rather than condemn and accuse. Instead of praying, "Lord, forgive them for being so cold," we should pray, "Lord, forgive us as a church for being so cold. Help us to be more loving, help us to pray more, help us to be more effective for you." (Google image, The cry and prayer of a broken heart)
For several reasons, I believe our current world situation is one that calls for weeping:
We should weep because humanity has forsaken God! The nations have forgotten God (Ps. 9:17). They do not want to retain the knowledge of God (Rom. 1:28). They show contempt for God's constant kindness, tolerance, and patience (Rom. 2:4).
Often they are hardened by God's judgments and their reaping of what they have sown (Rom. 2:5; Rev. 16:21). We should weep for our world: "Lord, forgive our wayward race!"
We should weep because sin is multiplying! Evil people are going from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Tim. 3:13). The sins listed in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 are all too evident: loving self rather than loving God, boastfulness, pride, abusiveness, disobedience to parents, ungratefulness, unholiness, lovelessness, unforgiveness, slander, lack of self-control, brutality, despising the good, treachery, rashness, conceit, love of pleasure more than love of God.
All these, combined with the gross sins of sexual perversion, rape, and pornography, have hardened our national conscience. Crime has escalated. Terrorism, sadism, and calculated cruelty have reached unimaginable proportions.
War is even more terrible, and peace seems constantly precarious. Man seems on the verge of destroying himself. How can we but weep: "Lord, have mercy on our sinful race!"
We should weep because as a church we are too lifeless and powerless! We can thank God for the dedicated believers in many parts of the world, and for what He is doing through them. But the world has lost its respect for the Christian church in general, for we do not bring glory to God as we should.
We have the "reputation of being alive," but all too often we are spiritually dead (Rev. 3:1). We lack the power that should witness to the world of spirituality and godliness (2 Tim. 3:5). There is a drifting or departure from sound doctrine, and false cults are multiplying (2 Tim. 4:3-4).
Too often our spiritual condition is typified by the Laodicean church; we do not realize how lukewarm, pitiful, spiritually impoverished, spiritually blind, and spiritually naked we appear to God (Rev. 3:17).
What a small percentage of good evangelical churches are really characterized by revival by constant soul-winning by the majority of the membership, and by sacrificial involvement in missionary enterprise. We need to weep for ourselves: "Lord, revive us again!"
We should weep because we as God's people are spiritually asleep. "Do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber . . . The night is nearly over; the day is almost here" (Rom. 13:11-12).
It is a shame that we have been sleeping in harvest (Prov. 10:5). We have largely lost the witnessing, soul-winning passion of the early church. We are upset by blatant sins, but fail to be disturbed by Christians who have never won a soul to Christ, by Christians whose prayer is mostly self-centered and who seldom weep for the world.
Earth's largest and whitest harvest since Pentecost is here, and we live a life of "business as usual"; we tend only to play church and to treat missions as a mere hobby instead of as the major task of the church. May God move us to tears: "Lord, awaken me and stir me and my church again and again!"
We should weep because Christ's coming is so near and our task so incomplete! Among the conditions stated in the Scriptures as necessary to occur before our Lord returns, only one appears to be lacking:
"This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matt. 24:14).
The great assignment Christ gave to His assembled disciples as the representatives of the church of the ages was to reach the whole world. Probably one-fourth of all the people in the world have never even heard the name of Jesus Christ.
At least one-half of them would not be able to make an intelligent decision to receive Him as their personal savior. Cold statistics may not move us, but we should remember that each number represents a real individual who will spend eternity in either heaven or hell.
Some years ago, while I was serving as a seminary principal in India, my students and I spent a field term going from village to village with the gospel message and Christian literature. We made it a practice to camp occasionally in the villages in order to witness and minister to the people.
One night at a village meeting, I read the Christmas story from Luke 2. As I began to speak, an old villager seated on the ground interrupted me. 'How long is it since that great day when God's Son was born?" I told him it had been approximately two thousand years. He pointed an accusative finger at me.
"You say you have known for nearly two thousand years! Who has been hiding that Book all this time?"
How would you have answered him? If he were your brother, what kind of excuse would you have accepted for his not having been given a single chance to be saved? What will God accept as an adequate excuse for our not making this an earnest daily prayer burden? The condition of our world should often drive us to tears.
One of my most precious memories is of my mother weeping day after day as she prayed for the salvation of comparatively unreached nations. "Lord, give us tears as we pray!"
(Chapter 12, pp. 88-89, italics added for emphasis)
Used by permission
of the Duewel Literature Trust, Inc,
Greenwood, Indiana
Available by phone
Let's pray-
"Heavenly Father, I pray that the joy of Jesus may be made full and complete and perfect in me, and that I may experience His delight and gladness fulfilled in me; His enjoyment perfected in my own soul. Jesus, you are my source of eternal salvation. Thank You for coming that I might have life, and have it more abundantly – have it to the full until it overflows. I receive the power of God that works through me. I rid myself of negative thoughts, and in simple humility, let my Gardener landscape me with the Word, making a salvation-garden of my life. I am united with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant to the glory of the Father. Amen"
Prayers that avail much |
Today's Bible verses-
Is. 45:2-3 (NKJV) "I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. (v. 3) I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel."
Is. 64:4, 5) "For since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ears, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, Who acts for the one who waits for Him. (v. 5) You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways. You are indeed angry, for we have sinned—in these ways we continue; and we need to be saved."
Today's quote-
~ Leslie Koh- "There are times when we might feel as if God isn't with us in our troubles. That's when we depend on what we can see of His works in our lives, in the past and present. They're the visible reminder of an invisible God—a God who is always with us and will answer in His own time and way."
Words of wisdom-
~ Have there been times you didn't sense that God loved you? It may very well have been in a time of hardship, when your focus was on the problem. When we think about the hardship, we tend to forget that the Lord is with us. He will see us through to where we can recognize His Faithfulness, no matter what comes our way.
Popular post-
#54 Your Need Appeals to God's Heart
Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: "Your prayer moves Him deeply. But without faith your prayer is incomplete."
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