Day 20

Today's devotional is from Pastor Steve about global missions
I don't know if you've every experienced the panic of losing sight of your child in a public place. A couple year's ago, my family and I went to peddler's village in Lahaska Pennsylvania during the Christmas season. There were a lot of people around. I had my daughter Ava sitting on my shoulders. As I went to put her down for her to walk again, I got distracted, and in what felt like seconds, she was gone. I remember hearing Diana ask that dreaded questions, "Where's Ava?!"

If you've ever experienced this, you know the kind of heart-pounding I immediately began to experience. In a crowded place, I began to back track and thankfully found her shortly after. Though it was only about 30 seconds, it was 30 seconds too long!

You've heard the saying, "out of sight, out of mind."

Well, though a child could be out of sight, to a loving father and mother, a child could never be out of mind. Our love for our children is too deep for that to happen! So is the love of the father for you and for me. We are never out of His mind, and because He is God and He doesn't have the limitations we have, we are also never out of His sight.

Luke 15 shares a story of Jesus as the great Shepherd losing one of His sheep. A single person walked away. The story reveals the heart of God for each person on this earth. The great Shepherd went pursuing the one who was lost. For Jesus, not one is "out of sight and out of mind.

There are many lost "sheep" in our world today which Jesus is still pursuing.

Many of these people are in areas that are considered "unreached."

What is considered "unreached?"
- a people group with less than 2% evangelical Christians, and less than 5% professing Christians.

How many people in the world are "unreached?"
- 40% of the world is considered unreached with the message of Jesus. That accounts for 7,400 people groups and 3.27 billion people. There are still 1,800 languages that still do not have a written Bible.

As my heart pounded for my daughter Ava who was lost for just 30 seconds, the heart of the Father pounds for each person who does not yet know Him. And like the Father, our hearts should pound for these lost children as well.

Today we are going to be praying for these unreached people groups all over the world.

Would you take some time now to pray for our missionaries who are serving in these unreached areas ( whose names cannot be published ), for a move of God among these places, and that the Lord would send more laborers to make a difference in these places. May these "unreached" areas soon be "reached" areas evidenced by changed lives for the glory of Jesus!

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