“Father God, I pray for everyone in my community to come to the knowledge of your saving truth; grant me opportunities to reach them all for you.” This was Joe’s earnest desire, and it often kept him up late into the night interceding for the lost with deep groanings of the Spirit. Sure enough, he seized the opportunities that came his way and reached everyone in his neighbourhood .
Today’s opening verse emphasizes your responsibility to evangelise your world and win the lost to Christ. God has made you a “watchman” over the unconverted in your world. You’re His watchman to your world because you’re the one to whom the Gospel has been committed (1 Timothy 1:11).
Apostle Paul made a very remarkable and inspiring statement in his address to the elders of the church at Ephesus, as he was to leave and go into Jerusalem. He said, “You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house…Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of any of you ” (Acts 20:20; 26). Paul was bold to declare that he was innocent from the blood of all men; not all men in the world, but those in his world, because not all men in the world were committed to him. Those that were committed to him were all the people he could reach, address, or meet wherever God sent him.
The same applies to you; your world is your sphere of contact: those in the environment where you function; those you meet, interact and relate with. Are you “innocent from the blood of all men” in your world? To be innocent from the blood of all men, you must, like Paul, take personal responsibility for the Gospel and preach it as though without you, no sinner in your world would ever hear about Jesus. This is mandatory for you as a Christian!
Prayer
Dear Father, the Gospel of your grace is like fire shut up in my bones, and I ask that you guide me by the Holy Spirit to as many as you’ve ordained to receive salvation and blessings through me today, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
