Pageant Prayer

Matthew 24: ⁹ “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰ At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹ and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹² Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³ but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

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When the person in the beauty pageant spoke, they uttered the words “And I hope we have world peace.” I laughed at the person and turned to something more interesting. That statement made the cartoons I watched even funnier as they too mocked the pageant statement of “world peace” as if the pageant participant were aloof and out of touch.

• My cynical view of the world has prevented me from thinking it can be saved.
• My pessimistic view of the world has stopped me from going out into it to reach people.
• My skeptical view of the world has sometimes made me judge the world, condemning it to hell.

Laughing at “world peace” means I have bought in to the thought that the world cannot be saved. When I step back out of the picture false prophets step in and preach wealth gospels and health gospels. BUT GOD wants me to do something different.

• GOD wants me to stand firm in belief in HIS might to save the world.
• GOD wants me to keep my love “hot” for the world, believing it is worth saving.
• GOD wants me to preach the gospel of JESUS’s love to the whole world as a testimony to all nations.

Giving up leads me to a cynical, pessimistic, skeptical life where every word spoken from “their” mouth or mine is negative. GOD wants me to speak life through HIS power alone. HE doesn’t want me to point people to false gods rather point them to the ONE true GOD in JESUS. My prayer is for world peace.

• Have you given up?
• Have you lost your fire to love others?
• Will you drop your cynical, pessimistic, skeptical view of the world and preach JESUS’s salvation?