Obsessed

I find myself obsessed with the Lord's eternal obsession: the harvest of souls. Jesus came into this world with one purpose, to seek and to save the lost. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:15,“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” I am so glad that Jesus came looking for me.

James 5:7 tells us the Lord is waiting patiently on the precious fruit of the earth. In 2 Peter 3:9 we read, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” After talking with the woman at the well in Samaria, she ran into the city to tell everyone that she had met the Christ. The people flocked out of the city to see Jesus. Upon seeing this, Jesus said in John 4:35, "Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest?' Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!" God is obsessed with the idea of people receiving eternal life through Jesus Christ.

As I sit at my desk in my church office, I am seeking (thinking, meditating, reasoning; to enquire into, aim at, strive for) the lost. Jesus' mission is our mission. The church, for the most part, has lost her way, its reason for being, lost its Priority One—the seeking and saving of the lost. We live in a day of distractions (lovers of pleasures, pet doctrines, useless trifles). Preachers of the Gospel have lost their way.

Charles G. Finney, in Revival Lectures, wrote, “Prayer is an essential link in the chain of causes that leads to revival…Some have zealously used truth to convert men, and laid very little stress on prayer. They have preached, and talked, and distributed tracts with little success. And the reason was, that they forgot to use the other branch of the means, effectual prayer. They overlooked the fact that truth, by itself, will never produce the effect, without the Spirit of God, and that the Spirit is given in answer to prayer.”

Leonard Ravenhill, in Revival Praying, wrote, “The state of praying that we seek is free from all personal request for personal benefit. We are seeking a love for the will of God among men, for the manifestation of the glory of God among men.”

Let us pray, plan, seek and save the lost.

Peace,

Stan