Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

"This is the confidence that we have in Him [God], that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him."¹

From time to time I encourage Daily Encounter subscribers to start his or her day with the following prayer: "Dear God, again today I commit and trust my life and way to you. I am available, please make me usable, use me to be a witness for Jesus, and help me to be 'as Jesus' in some way to every life I touchâ€"today!"

I have prayed this prayer every morning for many years and, by the grace of God, plan to pray it every day until the Lord calls me home. The fact is that God uses ordinary everyday people who are available to do his work here on earthâ€"often in unusual ways.

Recently, for example, I was on our sidewalk talking with our gardener when a neighbor walked by and wanted to talk to me. She was deeply hurt over a situation that was caused by another neighbor who had bawled her out. She shared with me what happened and was crying. It upset me too and I ended up crying with her. I then asked if I could hug and pray for her, to which she readily agreed, after which, she genuinely thanked me.

Furthermore, our gardener stepped aside a little but watched the entire event. I'll bet he never witnessed anything like this beforeâ€"neither had I.

Reminds me of the hymn that says: "God moves in a mysterious way / His wonders to perform / He plants his footsteps on the seas / And rides upon the storm."

Again I encourage you to pray the following prayer every morning of your life and see how God will use you too.

Today's Prayer: "Dear God, again today I commit and trust my life and way to you. I am available, please make me usable and use me to be a witness for Jesus, and help me to be 'as Jesus' in some way to every life I touch. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus' name, amen."

1. 1 John 5:14-15 (NKJV).

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