Week 1, Day 2: The Gospel of First Importance

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“One of the most basic things that the gospel does is change prayer from mere petition to fellowship…without the gospel, there is no possibility of passion and delight to praise and approach God.”

–Timothy Keller

 

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures”.” 

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (ESV)

Why start a month of prayer with reflecting on the Gospel?  We all believe the Gospel, so shouldn’t we get down to the “real” business of prayer intercession?

If you read the epistles of Paul, the resounding answer is “May it never be”.  The Apostle repeatedly draws our attention to the Gospel as the root, source, and power for anything we do – including prayer.  Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are OF FIRST IMPORTANCE not only because those are the objective facts which save us when we believe, but because everything God wants to do in us and in the world flow out of these “simple” but powerful statements.  As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ”.

What promise of God has been the sweetest or most the significant to you lately?  Spend time now praising and thanking God for this promise. 

What promise that God has made to the world, which remains at this time unfulfilled, are you most longing to see accomplished?  Take that promise to the Lord, and plead the world’s need before him, asking him to use you in fulfilling this promise. Remember that promise this week, and persistently approach God, the Righteous Judge, for its fulfillment in Christ.

Father, we also remember the promise you’ve made to Abraham, and confirmed again and again, that through Christ, all nations on earth would be blessed with the Gospel.  We ask that you use us to fulfill promise. Amen.

This blog is a part of the Lausanne Global Prayer Focus. We invite you to journey with The Lausanne Movement in prayer throughout the month of May. This journey will be a personal one, and a collective one. It will be focused on the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, his good news for all people.

In week 1, we are focusing on The Message of the Gospel. pdfDownload a prayer guide for the week, or visit lausanne.org/pray to access the new content daily. You may also enter your email on this page to be sent a weekly email reminder with the new prayer content each week of May. Be sure to select “Prayer” as a Topic Interest.