For the next two Sundays, we will be challenged to lift your eyes and consider a world that desperately needs Jesus. This Sunday (1/2), Grace Partner Adam Day will help us to recognize that great need. The following Sunday (1/9), Elder Erik Thoennes will help us reflect on how to meet that great need according to God’s Word.

As you thoughtfully anticipate the New Year by writing-up resolutions and filling-out calendars, let the admonition to lift your eyes shape your thinking. To begin, lift your eyes and consider who lives in your neighborhood, or complex, or residence hall. How many of them do you know? How many do you know by name? How many of them have been in your home? Once you lift your eyes in that way, an effort to engage those who live around you is a natural next step. Then, pray. In Matthew 9 we read that when Jesus,

“…saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:36-38)

As you pray, ask the Lord to help you see those around you as he sees them – “harassed and helpless” and, like you, in need of Christ’s life-changing love. If you pray that prayer, then the Lord promises to send out laborers to proclaim that life-changing hope to an otherwise hopeless world.

So, lift your eyes, engage those around you, and pray that evangelistic prayer. In doing so, the Lord will help you to see and even meet our world’s greatest need beginning right where you live.