There are people in our lives that we love, but we know their hearts are far from God. People reject God for a variety of reasons. Some of us have trauma that makes knowing God’s love hard; others of us have let pride and intellect decide that trusting in ourselves is a better bet than trusting in the divine, and others still just have been hurt by those who call themselves followers of Jesus. Our hearts should break for these special people in our lives; they are missing out on experiencing the fullness of the Father’s love for them.
If we are honest, while our hearts may know they need God, we can grow weary in how we trust and pray for these lost sheep. We can begin to feel that the lies of our chaotic world are more compelling than the truth of Jesus. That we have nothing new to offer those who have shut off their hearts to Jesus. That God is no longer in the business of radically changing hearts and minds.
I’m here to remind you not to limit God! He is a miracle-working God who has not forgotten about his lost sheep. Remember, in Luke 15, Jesus tells a story about his shepherd's heart for the one lost sheep. He tells of how even the one lost sheep out of the hundred must not be left behind. He goes after that one, and once they are found, he joyfully carries it home on his shoulders. His love for us is extravagant!
Your Prayers Are Heard
We can become complacent about our prayers for the lost because we begin to doubt that God really hears us. This is a lie of the enemy! God desires that all come to know him and for none perish. He is patient because he allows us each the time we need to discover salvation (2 Peter 3:9). God’s timing is different from ours.
1 John 5:14 promises, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” God promises that he hears our prayers. We have to be faithful to continue to ask for grace to be poured out on the lost and remember that God’s ways are higher than our own (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Just over the last few years, I have witnessed family members who had a hard heart towards the Lord due to trauma and hurt come to know the love of Jesus. This was a process that took decades to unfold, and a pandemic to expose the need for hope after death that we all have. This miraculous story of redemption can be credited to the faithful prayers of loved ones over the years. God heard and moved! It took time but each step on the journey was a part of the work to give the opportunity for souls to taste and see his goodness!
Our Circumstances Aren’t Too Much for God
As we stand in faith, believing that God is going after the lost sheep around us, we can begin to wonder if the circumstances around a person's closed heart are too much for God to overcome! It’s scary to see the chaos that can engulf our lives so quickly if we are not careful. Is the light able to pierce every bit of the darkness?
God promises that the light is always able to overcome the darkness when our hearts are willing to reach out to him (John 1:5). There is no set of circumstances so bleak that God cannot rewrite our stories for his glory. None of us can be separated by God’s love if we want it.
We live in the state of Virginia, and God is starting a special kind of revival here. One that is starting with the jails, criminals, addicts, forgotten, broken, sinners, and hopeless. God’s spirit is meeting people behind bars, changing their lives, and the church is feeling the power of God expand in our midst because his people are faithful to pray for those whose circumstances many would say are too bleak for God to mend. I am encouraged that God is still in the business of doing miracles!
This grace has touched our own family as our soon-to-be adopted daughter’s biological father met God in a prison cell. He has given up years of drugs, violence, and more to follow Jesus. God is slowly healing wounds, bringing family together in a creative way as we navigate an open adoption, and allowing us all to feel and see God’s extravagant love on display in our overlapping stories. On paper, this story looked hopeless. Loss and trauma have stolen much due to the enemy's grip on the lives involved, but God. He does so much more than we could ask or imagine!
God Loves Us
It’s easy to begin to see God as a great, angry judge up in Heaven who counts our wrongs and is ready to condemn us. This is not the God that we meet in the Bible. Psalm 103:8 says, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Psalms is talking about the Old Testament God of David! He was loving and patient then, and he is now. He came to Earth so we would not perish but have everlasting life with him (John 3:16).
Our passion for the lost changes when we understand that God's desire is that his whole Creation knows his goodness and love. He is grieved, just as we are, to see the effects of evil and chaos ravage our world. When we pray for our unbelieving neighbor, we are aligning ourselves with the heart of God. He loves us!
Let’s not limit what God can do! He is a God of miracles, a God of love, and a God of provision. He has made a way for us all to spend eternity with him. Let’s pray that the lost will come to their knees and find God’s amazing grace.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Doidam10
Amanda Idleman is a writer whose passion is to encourage others to live joyfully. She writes devotions for My Daily Bible Verse Devotional and Podcast, Crosswalk Couples Devotional, the Daily Devotional App, she has work published with Her View from Home, on the MOPS Blog, and is a regular contributor for Crosswalk.com. She has most recently published a devotional, Comfort: A 30 Day Devotional Exploring God's Heart of Love for Mommas. You can find out more about Amanda on her Facebook Page or follow her on Instagram.
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