Day 5 | Prepare the Way for the Lord

Command:

Ask the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into His harvest field. Matthew 9:38 (VOICE)

Read:

This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. It began just as the prophet Isaiah had written: “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way. He is a voice shouting in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming! Clear the road for him!’” Mark 1:1-3 (NLT)

Reflect:

I was at the gym minding my own business, earbuds at high volume, trying to get my workout in before heading to work. Someone approached with the weirdest question. “Are you going to ‘eaven?” he asked with a French accent. My first inclination was to just ignore him, but ended up engaging him in conversation. “Yup. I am.” “How do you know?” he asked. “Because I believe Jesus is my savior.” So began a short but life-giving friendship with Mark. 

Mark lived with an urgency to make Jesus known to every single person at the gym. Every day, in the wee hours of the morning, I saw him approaching perfect strangers asking the same question. Most of time people just ignored him. Over time though, roadblocks were cleared and many came to faith because of Mark. At his funeral not long after I met him, I recognized more than a dozen fellow gym goers. This was a testament to how much he loved Jesus and how much he wanted others to know him.

Mark’s mission field was the gym, and he knew that the harvest was plentiful but that workers were few. He answered the call. He was bold, lived with a sense of urgency, and didn’t care much if he was ignored. While he would never say that he was like John the Baptist, preparing the way for the Lord, he was instrumental in tilling the soil for a great harvest.

React:

No doubt Mark was a bold evangelist - few can be as bold. Yet we are all invited to work with Jesus for the harvest. What steps can you take this week to prepare the way so that others may know him?

Pray:

Jesus, fill us with the Holy Spirit to speak the word of God with boldness. May our conversations be always full of grace, gentleness, respect, and seasoned with salt.