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Intention
To bring the love of Jesus and the gospel to a lost and dying world.

Scripture

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him and he [shall eat] with Me.”—Revelation 3:20 (AMP)

Reflection
In the past, this verse has been used to invite people to ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive their sins and come and live in their heart. However, if you read the whole passage, you will see that Jesus is talking to the church at Laodicea. So it is us—His people—that Jesus is talking to. He is asking us to live in close fellowship with Him, not just leave Him on the outer edge of our lives.

Jesus understands how easy it is to take our relationship with Him for granted. We can easily just read our Bible and forget that it is Jesus Himself communicating with us. It is so easy for us Aussies to be apathetic and complacent, saying, “She’ll be right, mate.”

I love Isaiah 45:3 (AMP)—“And I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, Who calls you by your name.” When we spend time with our heavenly Father, He shares with us. He also says in Jeremiah 33:3 (AMP), “Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you do not know—do not distinguish and recognise, have knowledge of and understand?” God promises to show us what we don’t know. As an interesting example of this, I once saw a list of inventions that had been created by Jewish people. They had obviously come from God Himself. What a blessing for His people and for us all!

Some years ago, I attended the Hillsong women’s ‘Colour Your World’ conference. Everything was provided for me, so I went, expecting a word from God. Although I listened carefully to every message, there seemed to be nothing special during the conference. My driver wanted to stay for the Sunday service at Hillsong, so we did. Priscilla Shirer was the speaker. At the end of her sermon, she said, “God has sent me all the way over here from Dallas, Texas, to tell you He sees you in the secret place.” This was a wake-up call for me.

Even after this, I can still find myself drifting away from God’s presence. It is so easy to get up late and leave my Bible reading for later on, which tragically never seems to happen. We need to continually be on the alert to guard our time with Him. Studies have shown that our lives can be changed when we read our Bibles at least four days a week. What will God do if we read them seven days a week?

When we live close to the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe our lives can become attractive to those people who do not yet know Him. The closer we get to the Lord Jesus, the more we understand that His heart is for those people who do not know Him. Our prayers need to be focussed on the unsaved, and we need to be ready to speak as He leads.

Prayer
Dear Lord Jesus, will You give me Your love for the unlovely people, and give me Your words to speak to them? I thank You for preparing the hearts of the billions of people who will hear Your gospel in May. Please enable them to respond to You and accept You as Saviour and Lord. I thank You for Your great love for us which brought You from heaven to earth to live as a man, die on the cross, and be raised again by the Father. Thank You so much. Amen.

Prayer Points for May 2021
1. Pray for Revival and Transformation for Australia
2. Pray for 1 Billion people worldwide to hear the Gospel
3. Share the Good News of Jesus with 5 people

Betty is a retired English teacher who taught in the Professional Writing and Editing Course at the Goulburn Ovens TAFE. Her home church is Enjoy Church in Wangaratta, and she also regularly fellowships with the other intercessors on Canberra Declaration’s Zoom prayer calls.

We invite you to join the daily 1-hour Zoom video National Prayer Call every night:
DATES: 1st–31st May 2021
TIME: 8pm-9pm AEST
ZOOM URL LINK: https://zoom.us/j/776881184
ZOOM MEETING ID: 776881184
See Zoom tutorial here.

Daily devotions brought to you by the Canberra Declaration.