I realize some of you, like me, are facing challenges and obstacles perhaps greater than any you have ever faced. But, I have prayed for you today - and I am confident that God's Holy Spirit residing in us will keep you and me through every adversity.
As we enter the last week of our 40 Days of Prayer for the 2020 US General Elections, I want to encourage you to continue your genuine Kingdom work of forgiving and praying for everyone involved "to be saved and to understand the truth" (1 Timothy 2.1-4).
My immediate goal is to lead you through this 40 Days of Prayer, but my life priority is to help you move into a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Father that goes far beyond this 40 Days of Prayer, affecting your own relationship with the world for whom Christ died and rose again! Read on...
Up against faith, the 2020 US General Election is a small thing. It may indeed appear mountainous, but Jesus mentioned the fact that even mountains could not resist genuine faith:
Then Jesus said to the disciples, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart. I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours. [Mark 11.22-24]
If mountains cannot resist faith, then these elections cannot resist faith! Right? Right!
However, there is one caveat revealed by Mark 11.25 that deserves sober focus:
But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.” [Mark 11.25]
All the faith in the world - to move mountains or to influence elections - is powerless in the heart or mouth of the unforgiving. A heart of unforgiveness renders its faith a mere presumption.
Every human has been given the measure of faith (Romans 12.3). Every human has been given God's Word to activate that faith (Romans 10.17). And, every human has been given the command to forgive as the environment in which faith actually works (Mark 11.25).
Is our faith "wishing" or is it "working?" The difference is forgiveness!
Why do I continue to preach forgiveness? Because, regardless of the outcome of the 2020 US General Elections, the fight between good and evil will not be over! Increasingly more faith will be required in the days, weeks, months, or years that may remain before Jesus returns. We simply cannot afford to be a powerless Church, rendered so by our own unwillingness to forgive:
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! [2 Timothy 3.1-5]
(If this is the condition of those "having a form of godliness," then what in the world will those with no form of godliness look like??)
If you look at the list above from 2 Timothy 3, you will recognize that Jesus addressed most of these conditions at some point or another in His ministry on earth. However, the one that repeatedly stands out as a deal-breaker for prayer and faith is unforgiveness (Matthew 6.12,14-15) (Mark 11.25).
If you & I learn nothing during this 40 Days of Prayer but to forgive, then we have learned the most important thing! There is POWER in FORGIVENESS!
PLNB!
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