Every believer in the Lord Jesus has been gifted for service to His body the church. We do not all have the same gift. God's Word tells very clearly that "there are diversities of gifts," and that these gifts are given "to every man according to his several abilities." When we, as Christians, come to understand our limitations in the acquisition and exercise of divinely given gifts, we must confess that there are many things God never calls us to perform.
In the ministry, for example, one will have the gift of an evangelist, another the gift of pastor and teacher, and so on. In the many-sided activities of a local assembly each believer soon comes to see his or her limited qualifications. Not all are equally gifted in children's work, youth counseling, Bible teaching, administration, and other phases of ministry.
But there is a calling issued to every child of God -- a vital and essential calling. That calling is prayer. Every Christian can and should be effective in the practice of praying. This is true because of the Father-child relationship that exists between God and each of His children. It is reasonable and perfectly natural that any child look to his earthly father for provision, protection, and proper care. God commands His children to pray. Then He illustrates the reasonableness of prayer from family life.
Christian friend, the delight and desire of God's heart for you is that you learn to depend utterly upon your heavenly Father through prayer for your needs and for the needs of your brothers and sisters in Christ. Never minimize the importance of your part. Let's hear and obey Peter's exhortation to "be serious and watchful in [our] prayers" today
1. How are you to approach God in prayer?.
2. What is to be your attitude toward yourself?, toward your own needs? toward others and their needs?
3. Write down the names of those you will pray for.
4. Spend time alone, now, with your heavenly Father.
The first is found in John 3:16, where we are told that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." This love is universally bestowed upon all sinners everywhere. It is directed to every race, every color, every creed, rich or poor, high and low. This love reveals the immensity of God's love for a lost and perishing world. But God not only loved the world -- "God so loved the world." This love was a love that impelled Him to offer Jesus Christ, His only Son, to redeem us. No other sacrifice that God could make was sufficient. Here we see the intensity of God's love for sinners.
The second love is found in Ephesians 5, verse 25. There we read: "Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it." Now, the church and the world are not the same in the sight of God. The "church" is composed of all those who have come out of the world and have believed on Jesus Christ as a personal, indwelling Savior and Lord. It was for the church that Christ interceded in His great High-Priestly prayer in John 17. There He requested of the Father that "they [the church] also may be one in Us... I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me." This is, indeed, a special love!
Let God's love fill your heart today. As you do, your soul will overflow with a greater vision of the redeeming and healing love of Christ. And, you will know the love of God that yearns for those who do not know Christ as Savior. Then carry His loves to those about you!
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1. Focus your heart and mind on the loves God has revealed in Christ. Ask Him to enlarge your vision of those loves.
2. How can you share His love with others today? Do it!