Reason #939
Two months from today is the big day. 1000! Don't you find it interesting that the Lord would lay it on my heart to start a blog in January 2012 so that it would end in October 2014? You know the significance October plays in my life. Had it not been for that month, I probably would have never started writing. The Lord has most certainly been faithful to bring me full circle. I'm actually pretty anxious to write my 1000th blog post. I think you'll be just as amazed by God's timing as I was when I discovered what day 1000 would fall on.
Two months is not very long. Well, it depends on your perspective. Two months can seem like eternity when you're walking through the valleys of life. If you're sick or enduring an unfortunate situation, two months can see like a lifetime. Even if you're waiting on something good, two months can creep by. But two months can fly by. In fact, I've already started making plans for October because I know it will be here before I know it. And I wonder what the Lord will do in two months. He can accomplish so much during that time that there's no telling where we'll be.
I've been praying for the Middle East every morning. I wonder how long it will last. I wish with all my heart that someone could make it stop. I wish that there would be peace and reconciliation and that people would learn to get along. In fact, wouldn't it be nice if peace-seeking, good-hearted people could all live in one place together, and the violent, evil-hearted people could live in another place? Actually, I guess that would be Heaven and Hell, so the Lord is ahead of me on that one. But I don't understand what's going on and why it's happening. And I don't understand why someone won't just do something about it. But what would they do? After all, it's people we're dealing with here. At any time, people are allowed to start making bad, harmful choices and we can't stop them. No matter how many bullets are shot or how many bombs are dropped, evil exists. Because evil isn't a particular person or object, it's a mindset. It's a heart situation, and each person must decide that for themselves.
But as I've been praying for these people every morning, I was reminded about Paul. If you read the bible, you probably admire Paul. You probably hold Him in high esteem, as he wrote most of the new testament and was one fire for God. But before Paul began to do good, he did evil. He persecuted and killed God's people. He was violent and ruthless, and he actually thought he was doing the right thing. Religion was his excuse. But God got a hold of Paul's heart, and it was a complete turn around. He went from taking lives of those who followed Christ to leading people to find eternal life in Christ. He went from persecuting to rescuing, from harming to helping. And the truth is, the Lord can turn the hardest of hearts. He can turn the "chief of sinners," as Paul dubbed himself, into one of the most powerful evangelists of all time. God can change lives drastically, and that has become my prayer.
The only one who overcomes evil is God, and that's what we need to pray for. For hearts that would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Hearts that would be saved from destruction and hearts that would stop being destructive. That somehow, someway, the Lord would grab ahold of these hardened hearts and soften them. Just like He did with Paul, that some of the biggest persecutors would become some of the biggest witnesses of God's transformational power. That lives would be saved all around. That God would rescue His people, and that God would rescue the others from themselves. That His light would pierce through the darkness, and it would be undeniable. Lord, that you would do great things for all the world to see. That is our prayer, and we praise you because we know you are capable.
#939 - Because He drastically changes lives.
Two months is not very long. Well, it depends on your perspective. Two months can seem like eternity when you're walking through the valleys of life. If you're sick or enduring an unfortunate situation, two months can see like a lifetime. Even if you're waiting on something good, two months can creep by. But two months can fly by. In fact, I've already started making plans for October because I know it will be here before I know it. And I wonder what the Lord will do in two months. He can accomplish so much during that time that there's no telling where we'll be.
I've been praying for the Middle East every morning. I wonder how long it will last. I wish with all my heart that someone could make it stop. I wish that there would be peace and reconciliation and that people would learn to get along. In fact, wouldn't it be nice if peace-seeking, good-hearted people could all live in one place together, and the violent, evil-hearted people could live in another place? Actually, I guess that would be Heaven and Hell, so the Lord is ahead of me on that one. But I don't understand what's going on and why it's happening. And I don't understand why someone won't just do something about it. But what would they do? After all, it's people we're dealing with here. At any time, people are allowed to start making bad, harmful choices and we can't stop them. No matter how many bullets are shot or how many bombs are dropped, evil exists. Because evil isn't a particular person or object, it's a mindset. It's a heart situation, and each person must decide that for themselves.
But as I've been praying for these people every morning, I was reminded about Paul. If you read the bible, you probably admire Paul. You probably hold Him in high esteem, as he wrote most of the new testament and was one fire for God. But before Paul began to do good, he did evil. He persecuted and killed God's people. He was violent and ruthless, and he actually thought he was doing the right thing. Religion was his excuse. But God got a hold of Paul's heart, and it was a complete turn around. He went from taking lives of those who followed Christ to leading people to find eternal life in Christ. He went from persecuting to rescuing, from harming to helping. And the truth is, the Lord can turn the hardest of hearts. He can turn the "chief of sinners," as Paul dubbed himself, into one of the most powerful evangelists of all time. God can change lives drastically, and that has become my prayer.
The only one who overcomes evil is God, and that's what we need to pray for. For hearts that would come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Hearts that would be saved from destruction and hearts that would stop being destructive. That somehow, someway, the Lord would grab ahold of these hardened hearts and soften them. Just like He did with Paul, that some of the biggest persecutors would become some of the biggest witnesses of God's transformational power. That lives would be saved all around. That God would rescue His people, and that God would rescue the others from themselves. That His light would pierce through the darkness, and it would be undeniable. Lord, that you would do great things for all the world to see. That is our prayer, and we praise you because we know you are capable.
#939 - Because He drastically changes lives.
"Saul stayed with the believers in Damascus for a few days. And immediately he began preaching about Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is indeed the Son of God!” All who heard him were amazed. “Isn’t this the same man who caused such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem?” they asked. “And didn’t he come here to arrest them and take them in chains to the leading priests?” Saul’s preaching became more and more powerful, and the Jews in Damascus couldn’t refute his proofs that Jesus was indeed the Messiah." - Acts 9:20-22