Pray for one is not an evangelistic program or a recipe for immediate success. Pray for one is about becoming like Jesus and thus doing what He would do.
What was Jesus like? What motivated Him?
We see His heart very clearly when He teaches about a shepherd and his sheep. You see, Jesus is consumed with the one. What does He say? If a shepherd has 100 sheep and one of them wanders away, he will leave the 99 to look for the one. Jesus is that kind of shepherd and He is passionately fixated on finding the one. If we are truly followers of Jesus then we too must become passionately consumed with His mission of finding the one.
This is very simple and I must encourage you to refrain from making it complicated. The challenge here is to pray for one.
- Ask God to give you one person that you can share His love with.
- Pray that He would place someone in your path that you can share the gospel with.
- As often as you pray, pray for one.
- Pray for a "general" one and not someone specific. The one is often the least expected person and usually will come at the most inconvenient time.
- Replace your prayers for self with prayers for one. Instead of praying for promotions, protection, and provision plead for one.
- Knock on the door and bombard the throne with passionate pleas for one. Drive your God crazy with a singular request for one.
- Approach the throne of grace with extreme confidence that you are requesting the expressed will of Christ as you pray for one.
What occurs when we pray for one is that our entire outlook on life changes. Instead of viewing people as nuisances, we see them as the one. People are no longer our competition or our enemies; they are objects of grace waiting to be found.
As our hearts change, we find that we are not too busy to speak to a neighbor or stay late with a coworker. We find that our heads are up and that we are making eye contact with people, because we never know who the one will be.
No day is wasted, because we arise in the morning with a true sense of mission and purpose. The first words on our lips are "Give me one". The gospel becomes each day's destination.
Praying for one puts us into position to truly be used by God. This stuff is addictive. You get that first one and you can't stop. You have to have another and another and another. Kingdom growth is now exponential.
Do you get it? Spread the word. Take every opportunity to pray for one and to teach others to do the same. Evangelism isn't scary, it's inevitable. Pray for one!