Did you know that in the Tsunami hit prefecture of Iwate, there is on avearge 1 church in every 105 square miles, but in Orange County, there are 231 churches crammed into the same space? Click here to check out our new Tohoku report detailing the need for churches in the area we hope to minister in!
I was just reading Luke 18:1-8, where Jesus tells a parable about a widow who came before an unjust judge asking: “Give me justice against my adversary!” The judge ignored her pleas for justice for awhile, but the woman continued to bring her case before him over and over again so that he eventually granted her request just to get her to leave him alone. Christ’s point is that if an unjust judge will do the right thing when he is persistently asked to give justice, then God will certainly do the same when His people ask Him for justice from their adversaries. Christ encourages us to pray to God like that widow brought her case to the judge: frequently, persistently, with what might even be considered annoying frequency, without losing heart that God will certainly answer our prayers when we pray for things that are good.
Please be praying like that.
This week I’d like to ask you to be praying for the spiritual side of things. I often neglect to look beyond the surface of what is happening, and focus my prayers on the symptoms. In support raising, that means praying for contacts, praying for new monthly commitments, praying for the needs that I can quantify. But as I was thinking about that passage, and wondering about who our adversary is that we need God to deliver us from, I started to reflect on what is happening behind the scenes.
- Pray that God would place in the hearts of His people a longing for heavenly treasures that overpowers any longing for earthly comfort, so that Christians would be excited about the opportunity to invest some of their temporal finances to be a part of providing an opportunity for Japanese people to hear the gospel and grow in a relationship with their creator within the fellowship of a local church body.
- Pray that God would demonstrate His faithfulness to His people in such a powerful way that they would be able to trust Him to care for them when they chose to take bold steps of faith in order to fulfill the great commission, and that such faith would enable Christians who would otherwise be weighed down with fear and anxiety to give generously in order to send us to Japan on their behalf to baptize new believers and make disciples.
- Pray that God would constantly purify our hearts and motives, that we would always aim to build up and to offer ourselves to, and never to take from, the people we approach as we seek out people to partner with us in this ministry, for the building up of their character and faith, for the salvation of the Japanese, and for the glory of God.
Thank you all so much for your prayers!