God’s promise for Week 2:
“Be bold and strong! Banish fear and doubt! For remember, the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." (Josh 1:9 MSG)
For those who want further Scripture reading each day here are a couple of suggestions:
-Read one Psalm a day and meditate on it.
-Read a chapter or part of a chapter out of Acts or Matthew or Hebrews each day, focusing on the idea of faith.
Day 12
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want in my name and it will be given you. This is my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples." (John 15:7)
Lack of Persistence: On my list of “hopeless cases", I have Amanda (her name has been changed). Amanda has a desperate need for God—I could see it all over her face the first time I spoke with her. God brought her into my life and I just knew He was reaching out his hand to heal the tremendous pain in her life. Many of you have your own “Amandas"—perhaps you even have one on your list. I have been praying for and talking to my Amanda for close to two years and last spring she finally came to church and accepted Jesus into her life. Sound like a fairy tale ending? Not really. That was the last time she came to church, and today she is making the same old choices that caused her such pain in the first place. Well, I hate to admit it, but I gave up on her. I threw up my hands and said to myself: ‘Well, I can lead them to water but I can’t make them drink!" and went on my merry way. And then came that still, small voice that so often pierces my heart: “Did I give up on you when you were lost in your sin?" Ouch. I began thinking about the story that Jesus told of the lost sheep. Like it or not, each one of us is a shepherd and we are responsible for the sheep that God brings into our flock. Amanda was one of my sheep—she was lost in the wilderness and I was saying, oh well, it’s true she may die out there, but I’ve done all I can. The shepherd in the story left his other sheep—the responsive, encouraging, obedient ones--and he searched all night in the cold dangerous wilderness until he found that one who was lost. We need to take our example of persistence from Jesus. He never gives up on us, so how can we give up on others? He never loses his patience with us, so how can we lose our patience with those who are stumbling in the darkness? How will our “Amandas" see Christ’s patient, persistent love in us if we give up on them? When we feel discouraged about our hopeless cases, let’s remember that if we spend time learning about (through reading the Bible) and listening to (through prayer) the voice of God, and then we obey that voice, we can ask whatever we want in his name and it will be given to us. Let’s spend some time today asking God that all of our “Amandas" will hear God knocking on the door of their hearts, and believe that it is not God’s wish “for any to perish but for all to come to repentance." (2 Pet 3:9). So, as I’m writing this, I know that God wants me, instead of giving up, to pray for Amanda, encourage her, and be there for her when the storm of her pain rages around her once again. I think He wants us all to pick up our list of hopeless cases, find our “Amandas" and be the faithful shepherd that God has called us to be, “for the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." (Luke 19:10)
Prayer:
Lord, help me to remember that you never give up on me. Help me to care for the ‘lost sheep’ as much as you do.
In faith:
Remember to pray for your “hopeless cases". Maybe they’re not so hopeless after all.
