DAY 18

End times To Do List:

-Love God with all of myself

-Love others

-Make Disciples

-Pray

Numbers 2 and 3 depend upon numbers 1 and 4. Loving God and spending time with Him and praying without ceasing are how numbers 2 and 3 happen.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Sometimes we minimize the importance of prayer. We rush through our prayers, checking off our list of people, family, friends, specific needs, and then we move on to other busyness of life that is waiting for our attention. We don’t think about the fact that someone’s eternal fate is affected by our prayers. We don’t think about the spiritual battle that we are supposed to be fighting. We don’t think about the fact that our prayers to the “Lord of the Harvest” speed the coming of our Lord Jesus.

When you look back at the early church as it was growing exponentially in those early days, pay attention to what they were doing with their time.

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

They devoted themselves to prayer. It was not just prayer like calling out when the plane is about to crash. It was fellowship and prayer. This is how the church grew. We are instructed by Paul to be just as devoted to prayer.

Colossians 4:2-4 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

Are you praying that God may open a door for His message through you? Or through others? Are you praying that you and others may proclaim it clearly and boldly? Jesus is not coming back until all have heard the message of His love and have had the opportunity to respond to that message and choose Him. So to speed His coming we have to be spreading the message. Satan would love to do everything he can to stop us from spreading that message, so we need to be praying for the opportunities and for the boldness to proclaim it.

We want Him to come soon? We want the Church to grow all around the earth? We need to be praying and as often as we can we should come together to do it in agreement with others just as the early disciples did.

Jesus, help me remember how important prayer is every single day. Show me what to pray for and how to pray. Holy Spirit please pray through me and lead me in the prayers that you know are needed. Help me to be faithful in praying not just for help or in crisis but every single day. Show me how to do battle in prayer. Thank you that I am not alone but that you lead me in this. I pray for opportunities to agree in prayer with others. I pray for opportunities to spread your message and proclaim it boldly.