As Christians our chief aim in life should be to live a life that brings glory to God. I believe that one of the ways we can do this is by sharing the gospel and leading people to Christ. In our world, where so many people are lost in sin and living a life of total rebellion against God, what can be more wonderful than seeing these rebels give their hearts to Jesus and become God glorifiers instead of God mockers.
As I have shared in several earlier devotions, while sharing the good news is critical to helping unbelievers know that they are loved by God, but separated from Him by virtue of their sin nature, there is something, that on the surface, makes conversion to Christ impossible from a human perspective. For you see before we come to Christ, Scripture tells us that we are dead in our transgressions and sin (Ephesians 2:1) and incapable of even seeking after God. (Romans 3:11) tells us: “…there is no one who seeks God.” But praise God once we share the gospel message we have another instrument at our disposal that can help enlist the aid of the Holy Spirit to convict the lost sinner of their sins, open their blind eyes, and enable conversion to Christ to take place. And that instrument is prayer!
In yesterday’s devotion I shared the following quote from Pastor Jim Cymbala that I believe captures the essence of the need and power of prayer in the salvation process: “Around us is a world lost in sin, above us is a God willing and able to save; it is ours to build the bridge that links heaven and earth, and prayer is the mighty instrument that does the work.”1 As I was researching this quote, I noticed that another source attributed this quotation to E. M. Bounds.2 While both Cymbala and Bounds are great men of prayer, regardless of who said this quote, the impact of the need of prayer is clear.
We know that God is willing and able to save, but He won’t violate a person’s free will in the process. And this is where the mystery of divine sovereignty and human responsibility comes in. And while I can’t comprehend how both can be true, I believe prayer somehow links heaven and earth on behalf of a lost sinner and somehow can open blind eyes to understand the gospel message and bring conviction of sin. Prayer is the bridge that links God and sinful man together when the gospel is shared to bring about the saving of a lost soul.
While I still don’t fully understand how prayer works the Scriptures and life are full of examples of how praying men and women moved the hand of God to intercede in the affairs of men in many miraculous ways – including the saving of souls. Our job as Christians is not to fully understand how prayer works, but to fervently pray for the needs of others, and especially for salvations. I believe that God moves mightily in response to our prayers and that prayer is the bridge that links our omnipotent God to frail humanity in some awesome mysterious way. And when a soul receives Christ there is great glory to God in the process!
1 Jim Cymbala – Around us is a world lost in sin, above us is a…
2 E.M. Bounds Quote: “Around us is a world lost in sin, above us is a God willing and able to save; it is ours to build the bridge that links…”
Thank you for sharing this excellent post today.