Prayer to God for Them

“Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.” (Romans 10:1-3 ESV)

The apostle Paul was speaking here of his fellow Jews who had not received Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior, their Messiah, the Christ who they had been waiting for. For he was once one among them who did not believe in Jesus and who was, in fact, a passionate persecutor and murderer of those who made such professions of faith in Jesus Christ. So he understood their plight, and he felt it with deep passion and compassion, for he knew what it was like to be where they still were, without true hope in God.

Paul speaking: “In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 

“And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’” (Acts 26:12-18 ESV)

Paul, having been where they were, and having “walked in their shoes,” so to speak, felt much passion and compassion in his heart toward his fellow Jews who were still resisting the Holy Spirit and who would not yet yield to submitting to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. For he now knew what it was like to give his life over to the Lord Jesus to do what God called him to do in taking the true message of the gospel to both Jew and to Gentile. And he knew, too, what it was now like to be among the persecuted for his faith.

I can’t relate to Paul in who he was exactly before he met Jesus on that road to Damascus. I believed in Jesus Christ at the age of 7, and I followed him with my life, not perfectly, for I was young and immature and I had a lot of obstacles in my way. But I took God and his word to heart, and I was a follower of Christ who was growing and maturing in my walk of faith in him. But somewhere along the way I got “sideswiped,” and I fell into sin beyond what I had ever known before. But God rescued me. He brought me back.

And after some time of getting back on my feet and walking with the Lord in obedience to his commands again, then he called me to this present ministry of writing down what he teaches me each day from my times with him in his word and in placing those writings on the internet so that a herald can “run with it.” My assignment from God is just to write and to post these writings on the internet wherever the Lord leads me to post them, and then he takes them where he wants them to go. 

So, in some ways I can identify with Paul here, and also with those who are still living in slavery to sin. I know what it is like to follow Jesus with my life and I know what it is like to fall far from that and to follow the flesh, instead. And although it is never the will of God that any of us should sin, I do believe God has used that in my life to make me more passionate and compassionate towards seeing that those that I know and don’t know leave their lives of sin to now follow Jesus in obedience to his will for their lives.

For there are so many people in my country, and perhaps in other countries, who profess faith in Jesus Christ with their lips but who are seeking to establish their own righteousness via diluted and altered gospel messages and false portrayals of God’s true grace and his salvation. So their lives are not truly committed to the Lord. They have not died with him to sin, and they are not walking in obedience to his commands in holy living. So they don’t really know God, and they do not have eternal life with God.

And so the Lord is sending me out into the world with the true message of salvation, like he did Paul, which was taught by Jesus Christ and by Paul and the other NT apostles. But that is something that all believers in Christ should be doing, not all full-time, and not all in writing, like he has me doing it. But we who believe in Jesus are God’s holy people who are to proclaim (preach) the excellencies of God who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light. So we all should be doing what Jesus called Paul to do.

All of us should be sharing the truth of the gospel with others in order to open the eyes of the spiritually blind, so that they may turn from darkness (sin, evil) to light (God/Jesus Christ, truth, righteousness, the gospel) and from the power (and control) of Satan to now coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified (made holy in practice, i.e. in holy living, separate from the world) by faith in Jesus as their Lord (Owner-Master).

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 15:14; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6; Lu 9:23-26; Matt 7:21-23; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]  

My Heart’s Desire  

An Original Work / June 29, 2013

Based off Romans 10:1-21; Luke 9:23-26; Ephesians 4:17-24

Loved Ones, Oh, my heart’s desire

Is that you might come to Jesus.

Many appear zealous for God,

But they do not trust in Him.

They have not submitted to the One

Who saved them from their sins;

Not forsaken their sins,

Nor have they obeyed their King.

The word of the Lord is near you:

The word of faith we’re proclaiming:

That you must confess your faith

In Jesus as your Lord and King:

Believe in Him as your Lord, 

And follow Him where’er He leads.

Share the gospel; be a witness,

And meet others’ needs.

Beautiful are the feet of those

Who bring the good news of Jesus:

Anyone who would come to Him

Must deny himself today;

Die to sin and self, and

Let the Spirit transform you in heart;

Put on your new self in Jesus,

Yielding to the cross. 

https://vimeo.com/115643303