Saturday, April 16, 2011

For My Friend

Friendship_4

O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour! (Job 16:21 KJV)

For a moment I could picture a man pleading with God for his neighbor. We do pray for our friends, often.  I don’t think we picture it as pleading with God, but it is.

Yesterday there was a prayer requested for a family whose home was in the projected path of a wildfire.  That prayer was answered affirmatively and their home was not lost.  Others lost their homes, and I’m certain prayers were said for them, too.  Not all of our prayers receive affirmative answers.  We continue to pray.

The prayers I’m thinking of right now have to do with friends we know have declined God’s invitation to be a part of their lives.  Some of them may not be answered because God has given us free will to make decisions. He is not a puppet master, as some suggest.  There are other prevarications about Him and our decision regarding eternity.  One of the greatest lies is that we have time.

We have right now.  The majority of us will have tomorrow and many days following, but we don’t know which ones do and which don’t.  Knowing that places evangelists on streets going door knocking, asking people about their spiritual status.

One person did knock on a young mother’s door.  A rather pretty young lady, at home because she has no job.  Neither does the man living with her, her children and her mother.  The children’s fathers do not provide support, either.  When asked if the visitor could have some of her time to talk about Christ, she obnoxiously turned the visitor away, with invectives that anyone would question her lifestyle (which was not mentioned, except by her.)  She quickly reverted to curse words and sent what she called a hypocrite away.

Bragging about it to relatives just ended with family members telling her they would be praying for her, resulting in more complaints of how people keep telling her how to live her own life, and would they just stop!

No, we can’t.  We plead with God for our neighbors.

Any one of my readers can stop reading, stop coming here, and I’m grateful that they don’t.  Christ’s message can be sent away from one’s door. But I would feel incomplete if I were to stop sharing what God’s word means to me – inviting questions and hoping to raise interest enough to continue researching.  What I pray is that my readers will be as the Bereans (which I’ve written time and time again):

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:11 KJV)

Search the scriptures to see whether the things I write are so – read and ask God to give wisdom and understanding.  Simple, isn’t it?

1 comment:

  1. We all need a true burden from God, for our neighbors, they are sick and old some of them, and dying and going straight to hell, who will tell them if we do not? The man at the gas station, or grocery store, they do not even want to hear it; so you know they won't be telling any one how to get to heaven. The only way is through the son, if you don't come through the son, you DO NOT come at all. Amen Sister this is a good post, and one so very well needed, everyone wants to be up front, doing all things that everyone can see: Instead of out doing the work behind the scenes that God called all his children to do, we need to be a good witness where ever we go, show love and kindness and a true Spirit of God, but we need to go and tell other about the Saviour and what he has did for us.
    Giggles, okay getting off my soap box now, sorry, love ya sis.

    ReplyDelete

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