Seek the Lost (Luke 19:41)
And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, he wept over it.
– Luke 19:41
What a picture. Jesus looking out over the city of Jerusalem, which by the way, is about to crucify Him. That’s about to shout for his death in the most cruel way they could conceive. And Jesus looks at them, and He says in the verses that follow this “Would that you had known what makes for peace. But these things are hidden from your eyes, and the days are coming when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you”.
In other words, “Destruction is coming upon the city, and in your lives, and in your families. And I am here to save you from destruction. And yet you’re not believing in Me. You’re not receiving Me. You’re rebelling against Me and God’s love for you”.
Luke 19:41 challenges us to see people the way God sees them.
There’s so much here in this picture. But as I read it, one way I want to lead us to pray is that God would help us to see people around us today as He sees them. And to love people around us. And specifically people who are far from Him, to love them as He loves them. When was the last time you or I wept over people around us who don’t know Jesus? And even to take that a step deeper, when was the last time we wept over the souls of people who may even seek to harm us, who may want to do evil to us, that we weep with love over them? That’s the picture here in Luke 19.
And only God can produce this kind of heart in us, this heart for the lost that sees and knows the destruction that’s coming. We know what the Bible says about eternity for people who don’t know Jesus. And so God, we pray for Your heart to be our heart, that You would help us to weep as You wept here.
Luke 19:41 challenges us to cultivate a loving heart.
Jesus, please, we pray for this. That You would help us to see people as You see them, to love them as You love them, all the people around us today. And specifically people who don’t know You, even people who may be doing things against us or Your Church.
God, we pray You’d help us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute You and not just to pray for them begrudgingly, but with compassion, and the heart of Jesus that we read about here in Luke 19:41.
God we pray, please make our hearts, mold our hearts to be more like Yours, to weep over the lost and to live with compassion for them and to live to share the good news of Your grace with them.
Prayer for the Southern Sama People
God, we pray that You would help us to see the nations of the world like this. We pray for the Southern Sama people of the Philippines. God, we intercede today for more than 250,000 Sama men, women, children in the Philippines. Please, oh God, bring salvation to this Muslim people group. I think about Martin Burnham, who years ago was martyred in the Philippines as a missionary. And his gracious wife who shared a powerful testimony and love for the people who held her and her husband captive for all those days, and for all she has done to work to get the gospel to them, to spread the gospel to their persecutors God. Only You can make our hearts like Yours. So we pray today in each of our lives, make our hearts like Yours according to Your Word in Luke chapter 19:41. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
