Month: April 2015

Jesus’ harvest vision was leveraged by prayer. Prayer is continually connected to the mission of God in the life of Jesus. We have no ability to transform anything without God’s power. Jesus explained the power needed for the harvest was found in the resource of praying, ‘The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest’” (Matt. 9:37-38). The source for harvest workers is not in recruitment strategies, but in prayer. Prayer recognizes God as eternally resourceful.
–Ed Stetzer & Thom Rainer

God calls us to be people of prayer. And He instructs us about what we should pray. As you pray for the harvest and for more people to answer the call to work in the harvest, God will also begin transforming you into a worker for His kingdom purposes. Take time to stop and pray that God will send more into the harvest fields today.

Our problem in evangelism is not that we don’t have enough information–it is that we don’t know how to be ourselves. We forget we are called to be witnesses to what we have seen and know, not to what we don’t know.
–Rebecca Pippert

Too many times we don’t share about our relationship with Jesus because we are afraid that we don’t have enough knowledge. We are afraid we will be asked a question that we don’t know the answer to. The problem is that we can never be prepared for every question that could ever be asked. Instead of worrying about what I don’t know, I need to focus on what I do know… and what I know is that my life is different because of my meeting Jesus. My character, attitude, thoughts, speech, and behavior are all different due to how He has transformed me. That is what I need to let people see and hear about. And that is enough to draw people to Jesus. Now… how can I change my conversations with people today so that I can tell someone something about who Jesus is to me?

Being “rich toward God” means looking Godward for heavenly wealth. It means “taking your ease” in Him, finding your security in Him. And it means using your money in a way that enlarges the barn of your joy in heaven, not the barn of your comfort on earth. God gives us money on earth in order that we may invest it for dividends in heaven.
–John Piper

Being a good steward of the money that God has blessed me with on earth means using it for Him. And yet, too often, I find that He rarely enters into my thoughts of how I am using my finances. May I become a good steward for Him and use all that He has blessed me with to bless Him.

Then we may say with Habakkuk in face of economic ruin or any other deprivation:
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength” (Hab 3:17-19). Happy the person who can say these things and mean them!
–J. I. Packer

Father God, help me to say these things and mean them! Help me to be joyful in You as my Savior when everything else around me fails and falls apart.

The only persons in the ancient world who carried a cross were condemned criminals going out to execution; each, like our Lord himself, was made to carry the cross on which he was to be crucified. So, what Christ means is that you must accept for yourself the position of such a person, in the sense that you renounce all future expectations from society and learn to take it as a matter of course if the people around you give you the cold shoulder and view you with contempt and disgust, as an alien sort of being. You may often find yourself treated in this fashion if you are loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ.
–J. I. Packer

Are you willing to renounce all future expectations and gladly endure the contempt of others to gain favor with Him?