John 1:4
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

Jesus offers his life to all people. This is not an anonymous or hidden inner light that is in all people just waiting to be discovered as some philosophies or religions teach. You may believe this but it doesn’t appear Jesus did. In him the light of the world is revealed in a very specific and clear way. “In the flesh,” as verse 14 will state later in this chapter.

Secret knowledge or light within that has to be discovered is exactly the kind of thinking Jesus came to correct. There is nothing secret, mysterious, or rare to being a follower of Jesus. It is just being open to live in Christ, who says, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”

Pray for the basic, simple clarity of the good news of Jesus to reach those who are seeking.

Luke 24:49
I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Pastor Tim Keller says ‘As the city goes, so goes the culture. We need churches wherever there are people, but we can have our greatest influence for good in our society if we have a strong presence in the urban centers.‘

The early church went to the cities first. Christians established centers for hope, healing, and good news in the urban arenas of the Middle East, Asia, Minor, and Europe. Only later did the faith spread to the countryside. What are the implications for this today?

Pray for the blessing of the largest city near you.

Luke 18:16-17
But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Anyone who thinks little children are precious and completely pure has never raised or met a two year old who finally discovers he/she is not the center of the universe. As one pastor said in a sermon I heard recently, “They would kill you in a minute if you weren’t so big.”

Precious? Of course. Pure? At times. Yet, Jesus isn’t talking about the exemplary behavior of children; he is talking about their confident trust. If you say something, children expect it to be true. If they are in trouble, you will save them. If they are sad, you will comfort them. It is this trust Jesus is lifting up as a model for us all.

Pray for the children in your life.

21 You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.”

Nothing more has to happen to bring in God’s Kingdom; it is already here. In order to live in his Kingdom, you must trust in the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins and accept his forgiveness. If you don’t want him he will not force himself on you.

God the Father does have pure wrath against sin and so if you don’t accept the sacrifice of Jesus your actions are all that will save you from the purely just God. God is perfection and so your actions must be identical to God’s in order to not need Jesus. God is not mean or vindictive, he is only fair.

Pray for God to guide you to those who don’t trust in Jesus that you might share his love.

Luke 11:29
29 As the crowd pressed in on Jesus, he said, “This evil generation keeps asking me to show them a miraculous sign. But the only sign I will give them is the sign of Jonah.”

The sign of Jonah is the declaration to repent. There are various meanings for this word from the Bible.

repent- turn and go in a new direction
repent- think again, only differently

For a generation to be classified as evil it must be working against God’s ways. The assumption is that you do know the ways of God, and yet, you are still doing one or both of these things: Going in the wrong direction and/or not thinking straight. When God eventually brings fairness and justice to the situation, there will be no excuse. You knew and you chose to go your own way rather than God’s on purpose.

Pray that you would be honest before God.

Mark 16:20
20 And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked through them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.

When the Holy Spirit is at work, people will notice. There may even be miraculous signs. Notice the signs follow the preaching. Are there life changing signs that occur at your church after your preacher preaches? The most common and miraculous sign is when Christian believers become disciples. When it actually sinks in that this faith stuff really does matter in a practical way in everyday life, and followers actually follow.

Pray for long term as well as short results in the life of your community.

Matthew 28:20
20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Everything that Jesus wants done will be done because he is there to do it. Disciples are those who intentionally choose to follow the ways of Jesus and learn from him however they can. This is different than people in churches who love Jesus and trust in him and want to live with him forever, but they don’t practically intend to actually follow his teachings.

If you love Jesus and wish to live with him forever you get to, but there is more life in store for us than simply believing. It is about living the abundant life and we can do this, too. All the way to the end, and beyond. Choose this life.

Pray for strength to be more intentional in your walk with Jesus.

Matthew 18:20
For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.

This verse is not meant to assume that Jesus is not present with us when we are alone. What it does tell us is we are strong when we are together. Think of what would actually happen if we lived in our homes as those gathered in the name of Jesus? Then why don’t we?

Pray for Jesus to be in all your relationships today.

Matthew 16:19
19 And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.”

The keys of the Kingdom are a sign of God’s work in his community. We have been given the means to decide what is acceptable and what is forbidden in the life of our churches. This begins and ends with the Bible. Christians of good conscience can disagree over important matters (e.g., infant or adult baptism, open or closed Communion) and so it is probably a good thing that “it takes the whole world to preach the Gospel.”

Pray for churches who take positions contrary to your viewpoints.

Matthew 1:23
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.”

Who would have thought that we would actually have Christians questioning the Virgin Birth? What’s wrong with Jesus having a human biological father? Well, two things. One, he would have been conceived out of wedlock, a sin and sign of disobedience, and two, he wouldn’t be divine from eternity. So, other than those two reasons…

Pray for God to continue to bless faithful teachers of the Gospel.