When I finish praying, I find myself thinking about what I need to lay down or put aside in order to be more effective in my ability to share the gospel with those around me.

Among the weak in faith I become weak like one of them, in order to win them. So I become all things to all people, that I may save some of them by whatever means are possible. All this I do for the gospel’s sake, in order to share in its blessings. – 1 Corinthians 9:22-23 GNT

I pray for an unreached people group every morning. Being a leader in a ministry reaching out to Middle Eastern people in both there and in Canada, I talk about praying for unreached people groups in the world. There is a reason why they are unreached. They are hard to reach and difficult to reach.

I pray that God would help me and give me the same heart as Paul who wrote those words above. I pray for this posture, if you will, this perspective. I pray for those all around me and for those far from me, that God would raise up labourers who will leave behind what is known, safe and comfortable to take the gospel to a place it has not been.

 “My God, Father, and Savior, since you have been pleased to give me the grace to come through the night to the present day, now grant that I may employ it entirely in your service, so that all my works may be to the glory of your name and the edification of my neighbors.  As you have been pleased to make your sun shine upon the earth to give us bodily light, grant the light of your Spirit to illumine my understanding and my heart.  And because it means nothing to begin well if one does not persevere, I ask that you would continue to increase your grace in me until you have led me into full communion with your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the true Sun of our souls, shining day and night, eternally and without end.  Hear me, merciful Father, by our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.” – John Calvin