Daily Devotional for Friday December 21, 2007

Going After the One

(Matthew 18:10-14)

A few weeks ago was a time of great concern for me. God has blessed me with an incredible staff of people that help make Liveprayer possible 24/7/365 for millions all over the world. I am grateful for their loyal service to the Lord. In times of emergency, they have never hesitated to drop what they are doing, leave their families, and work tirelessly to insure Liveprayer is up and running. Very few would ever comprehend the incredible technical feat it is to do all that we do each day with the 24/7 LIVE video prayer feed on our site, not to mention sending over 2.4 million individual emails worldwide. God has given us incredibly gifted people to make it all happen for HIS glory!

One day a few weeks ago, I realized that out of the approximately 40,000 emails that I received from the previous day, about 26 were accidentally deleted. I called my technical staff to come in immediately, and we spent hours on a Sunday trying to locate the "missing 26." Now many would ask, "Why be so concerned about 26 emails out of 40,000?" The exact same reason the shepherd who had 100 sheep got so upset when only 99 were rounded up for the evening. ONE WAS MISSING! The shepherd dropped all that he was doing to go out and search for the lost ONE. I stopped all that I was doing early Sunday, had my technical staff come in to try and locate the "missing 26."

Why? Because the shepherd's job was to care for 100. He was responsible for ALL 100 sheep. IT WAS HIS JOB AND RESPONSIBILITY TO GO FIND THE LOST ONE! Likewise, God has given me a job to do. It is to provide spiritual guidance to those that God brings into the ministry of Liveprayer. God brings people to this ministry for a Divine purpose and reason . . . NOT by accident. Each person He brings is special to me. I love and care about each one because I know that it is a real person behind that email address, an eternal soul that Jesus Christ gave His very life for. The job that God has given me to do in this season of my life is to be here for those that He brings to Liveprayer with their hurts and pains and needs.

In the scripture today, the shepherd was successful in finding the one that was lost. In the end, we were able to find 24 of the "missing 26". I am still VERY CONCERNED about the two we could not find! Nothing has grieved me more as those who came to us and we had technical problems that prevented us from responding to them in their time of need. I DO LOVE YOU, AND DO CARE ABOUT YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW. I take the work God has given me to do very seriously, and want you to never forget that no matter what, I am here for you! YOU are special to God, and you are special to me!

I love you and care about you so much. I will be praying for YOU today. I pray daily for each person that God has brought to Liveprayer. You are NOT just an email address, but an eternal soul Jesus died for so that you could spend eternity with God! While over 2.4 million worldwide get this Devotional each day, you are unique and special to me. I am here for YOU no matter what you are going through, what you are facing in your life. If you were the only person on earth, Jesus would have still died for you! THAT is how special you are to God, and how special you are to me!!!