Today is the third day of our new year. If you have already blown your new year’s resolution, there is still help. One of the good things about our conversations with God, our prayer life, is that He is always there to listen, forgive, and restore us when we fail. I John 1:9 assures us that He will forgive. It was written to Christians, and when God forgives, He no longer holds our sin against us. If we confess and forsake our sins, God promises to forgive and remove them from our account, as far as the east is from the west. It is vital to our relationship with God that we pray and keep the lines of communication open. If we want our prayers answered, we must be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and when we do wrong, seek forgiveness immediately. I will never forget when I heard Psalms 66:18. It teaches us that if we have unconfessed sin in our lives, sins we cherish, that God will not hear our prayers until we have forsaken those sins. I know that there are times I’ve needed God to answer prayers quickly, and I don’t want anything to hinder my prayers.
I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Psalms 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
Psalms 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”
Keeping a clean slate between me and God is vital to have my prayers answered. As I said in yesterday’s post, there are many areas of prayer that need to be part of our daily prayer time. We need to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ, for our families, for the sick, and those in need, but the prayer that I believe is lacking in most Christians is the intense prayer for souls to be saved.
I believe that the dearest prayer to the heart of God is sinners seeking forgiveness and becoming His child. Why do I think a prayer for salvation touches the heart of God more than any other? Because answering that prayer cost God the most. He gave His only Son so that prayer could be answered.
After Adam and Eve sinned all the world was exposed to the wrath of God. All were guilty before Him. A holy God who cannot be in the presence of sin was now separated from His dearest creation, the creation that is made in His image. We were in a hopeless situation until God made a plan to redeem us. This plan is revealed in John 3:16. Because of His love, He gave the only perfect one that was qualified to redeem us. He gave His Son for all who would believe in Him, repent, and forsake their sins and turn to Him.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
In Hebrews 2:9, Jesus would taste death and become a sacrifice, not for some, but for every man. The most important decision anyone will ever make is to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Everyone will spend eternity in either Heaven or Hell. We will all die one day unless Jesus comes back first. At this time, our destiny is sealed. God desires that all will be saved, but we need to do our part. We need to be praying for the Holy Spirit to deal with the hearts of those who are not living for Him. We need to pray the most urgent prayer of all. A prayer for souls to be saved. What good does it do a man to have a healthy prosperous life here, if he dies and goes to Hell for eternity?
Hebrews 2:9 “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”
Our prayer life should be integrated constantly with prayers for the unsaved. We need to zoom out on the lens of life and evaluate how our prayers are fitting into the big picture of life. No prayer is more important than the prayers for salvation. Sickness, needs, wants, may seem very important to us here, but they pale in compassion to the need for others to know Christ.
Will 2022 find you more concerned about people going to Heaven than it does about your own physical needs? Will your prayers be selfish and unconcerned about those Christ died for? We need to think about what it will be like to stand before God and give an account for the works we have or have not done. Look for opportunities to witness to others and pray that souls will be saved. Seek the heart of God and you will love what He loves, which is all mankind.
