Lift your eyes. That’s the challenge as we begin 2022. Lift your eyes and consider a world that desperately needs Jesus. Lift your eyes and see that world as Jesus did in Matthew 9:35-38 and then ask yourself the questions posed to us last Sunday (1/2) by Grace Partner Adam Day:

• Jesus saw the lostness of people.

Do I see that same lostness in those who don’t know Jesus?

• Jesus showed compassion on lost people.

Am I moved to compassion over lost people like Jesus was?

• Jesus recognized the potential of lost people to become followers.

Do I recognize that same potential in lost people, especially among those who seem farthest from professing faith?

• Jesus commanded his disciples to pray that the Lord would send out workers to reach lost people.

Do I sidestep Jesus’s command to pray for workers among the lost and instead try to meet that need in some other way?

Prayer? Is that what Jesus wants of me – something I should already be doing? Yes! And this week, Erik Thoennes will show us other things that God would have us do that he will use to save the lost. For instance, in anticipation of the last day, God encourages us to live holy lives (2 Peter 3:10-14). In fact, the Lord explains that holy living not only anticipates the last day but even hastens its arrival!  Until that time, the Word exhorts us to “good conduct” which authenticates our profession of faith and can lead to the salvation of the lost (1 Peter 2:12-3:9).

So, as you lift your eyes and consider the challenge of reaching the lost, remember that God’s work done in God’s way yields God’s results. Let’s begin the New Year recommitting ourselves to some basic things – prayer, holiness, good conduct – and start looking for their saving effects in the lives of others, as well as our own.

Randall Gruendyke