But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Memory of the month: And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" —Luke 24:32
Today's reading: DEUTERONOMY 22-24 MARK 14:1-26
One Tiny Flash
How do you pray for a lost soul? I think about that a lot. A woman dear to me tells the story of going to a class reunion. As the evening progressed, a classmate told this woman how as she lived her wild ways, she always noticed her who lived a life that was not wild-a life of faith. This was the influence that led her to Christ.
This was, of course, the Holy Spirit in the life of the faithful one. The Holy Spirit had made an impression through the faithful life. It may have been through years of testimony but what if it had been only a glimpse-one instance where the Holy Spirit had planted a seed of desire for the righteousness in the life of one faithful woman?
1 Corinthians 3:7 ►So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
It only takes one seed. This does not lessen the responsibility of all of us to continually plant-to continually ask our Father to work through us.
1 Peter 4:11 ►If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God.
Each word, each movement in grace can be the moment in which a seed is planted. We never know when the time is right-only the Holy Spirit knows. So, each moment counts as much as the next.
All it takes is one small flash of grace. That moment in which the Holy Spirit plants a seed of possibility in the heart, soul, and mind of the unbeliever that cannot be shaken.
The next time you go to the post office, or the store, or gas station consider saying a short prayer, "Lord, let me plant a seed of desire in the heart of one lost soul". Everyone you meet is then a possibility. Every word and movement is then critically urgent but to be carried out in humility and grace.
1 Peter 3:15 ►But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness(humility) and fear:
The humility comes naturally to the one yielded to the Holy Spirit. The fear should be that we will miss the chance to plant the seed.
The question was how do we pray for the lost. The lost are either people we know or those we do not, obviously. The question, then it seems, needs to be, "How do we pray for ourselves that we are ready to plant". God causes the increase.
1 Corinthians 3:7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
In the preparation for everyday, pray for the lost you know by name. Pray for yourself, always with thanksgiving, that you be a spade in the hand of God-a worthy instrument through which God can cause this miracle.
One little flash of grace that plants the seed for the eternal Grace of God will be there forever-so will a bad temper or attitude or foul word. If our behavior keeps one soul from the seed that opportunity is lost.
Proverbs 11:30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
The verb 'wins' in the Greek has many variations but one that caught my eye was 'takes captive'. We do not want to take anyone captive-we just want to allow God to captivate that one tiny flash of eternal grace in the mind of that one lost at a time-through us-at His divinely appointed time.
Pray for the lost but also pray to be a worthy vessel for God to use-all the time.
...because He loves us...
Father in Heaven,
Forgive me for not being conscious of Your righteous purpose all the time. Captivate my thoughts with your grace for the lost around me. Thank you Holy Father.
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