The Devotional
Comment:
As the years go by there have been many people who come and
go in our lives. Some of these are close friends; brothers or sisters in the
LORD and some who are still brothers and sisters in the LORD but are miles
away. At times we hear that these whom we seldom see ask for prayer for those
whom they know and we do not. This brings up an important concern. Do we
actually pray for the ones we do not know, or do we even pray at all? The
answer to that question is between us and the LORD, yet I will say that most of
us have difficulty praying even for the ones we know much less someone we do
not know. So the question that comes to mind, “How does the apostle Paul” do
what he says he does in these few verses.
Challenge:
Romans 1:8-10
Thanking God for
the saints we know and the ones we do not know but have heard about should be a
daily routine for all of us. If we look at the context of this statement of the
apostle we see a couple of interesting clues for prayer. Communication with God
is also communication with the saints of God, in other words if you are saved
you have something in common with all saints and while we may never meet some
of the saints we hear about, we can be effective in our communication with and for
them because we are talking to our Father and our God. The same Father who
saved them, saved us.
We can have a
longing to meet up with these follow brothers and sisters and God may have
purposed that we should at some point meet them. Thus it is or becomes needful
to keep the communication lines open and a simple “thanksgiving” will do this
since you can be sure that our Father is meeting the needs of His Children (1
John 2:28 – 3:3) and (Matthew 6:9-13).
Also, look at
verse 9 here in Romans, the apostle Paul is 100 percent serving God in the
presenting of the Gospel, which means that he is not being distracted by the
kosmos (world) around him. This is an important point in that there will be
distractions in our day, but we should notice that Paul’s relationship to the
world is not worldly, it is godly and that is a big difference. Paul is “whole
hearted” in his walk in the Spirit and might I say this; “today if is very
difficult to find a whole hearted saint.”
God is our witness
(always) to prayer. Our mind should always be abiding in the Light of being in
Christ, John 15:4, not being distracted and in prayer at all times. This is the
only way for God to open doors for you and me. God is not opening any door,
except the door that leads to the Good News of the Gospel of His Son. Now
search the scripture on this. You will not find God opening doors of
opportunity for any believer that does not relate to presenting the gospel. His
will is that none should perish and He will open that door for you to speak.
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