To learn more about the details for activities happening during the 10 days, please read here. Each day we will be sharing a devotional here on the KCI Blog, which you can follow via RSS here or by signing up to the emails here. Read Day 6's devotional below.

DAY 6, The Vision of the Lord

Today's reading is Deuteronomy 11:12.

“It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.”

Beginning with the beauty of creation and the gift of life. Concluding with the promise of our joining Him in heaven’s glory, the Bible tells us about the love of God. It’s a story of relationship, reconciliation and redemption. It’s a story of God’s great love for each and every one of us.

It breaks God’s heart to see His people so lost, broken and hurting. This is why He was willing to move heaven and earth to win our hearts back to Him and break the curse of sin and death over our lives. His love breaks through the darkness to give us a hope and a future.

Deuteronomy 11:12 talks to us about God’s vision for our lives. This is the vision that God cares for. His eyes are continuously focused on this vision. Everyday from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. He wants to see us freed from the oppression of Egypt and planted and fruitful in the promised land of his kingdom.

God’s vision is a vision of love for His people.

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Revelation 1:5-7, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father – to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. ‘Look, he is coming with the clouds,’ and ‘every eye will see him.”

Later in Deuteronomy 32:9-11 we read, “For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye.”

Wow. The Bible makes clear that the Lord loves us so much we are the ‘apple of his eye.’

The phrase apple of my eye today refers to someone that one cherishes above all else, however the Hebrew translation literally means, "Little Man of the Eye." This is a reference to the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people's pupils. God wants you so close to him that you are literally the focus and reflection in his eyes. What an incredible thought.

Everyday The Lord watches over your life. Psalm 121:1-8, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip – he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you – the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm – he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and for evermore.”

This Psalm has encouraged me so much in my life in both the good times and in the most desperate.

God loves each and everyone of one of us. His goodness will never fail us. Indeed, His goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives and we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23:6)

Psalm 33:14 says that; “from his dwelling-place he watches all who live on earth.” And 1 Timothy 2:3-7, “This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people.”

I want to encourage you today:

  • The Lord cares for every detail in your life - Matthew 10:30 (MSG), “He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head!”
  • When we come with a simple faith the Lord is listening to our prayers - 1 Peter 3:12, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer.”
  • He watches over us each and every day - Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

Through the 10 days we must pray that the Lord’s vision becomes our vision in a new, living and purpose driven way. We must have this same love and compassion for people.

It starts with our own personal encounter with the love of God and then a desire is born in ours hearts to share this love with everyone we come into contact with. If we are disciples we too must be consumed with God’s vision of love for people.

God wants us to catch his dream for people. This must be the dream we care about. One that we focus on continually year in year out as modelled to us in Deuteronomy 11:12.

This was the vision that God gave Abram who later became known as Abraham. In Genesis 12:1-2 God begins to speak to Abram about how he will use his life to impact many people’s lives, “The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. ‘I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.” And verse 3 adds, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

God didn’t just want him to impact a few people’s lives, He wanted him to reach multitudes of people throughout the generations. Genesis 15:5 MSG says, “Then he took him outside and said, “Look at the sky. Count the stars. Can you do it? Count your descendants! You’re going to have a big family, Abram!”

God saw Abraham’s heart. He saw that he was faithful and had a heart after God’s even willing to offer up his son for God’s vision to come to pass. The fruit of this obedience was that his son was blessed and the multitudes were blessed all because Abraham faithfully followed the Lord’s example.

Genesis 22:15-18 MSG, “The angel of God spoke from Heaven a second time to Abraham: “I swear—God’s sure word!—because you have gone through with this, and have not refused to give me your son, your dear, dear son, I’ll bless you—oh, how I’ll bless you! And I’ll make sure that your children flourish—like stars in the sky! like sand on the beaches! And your descendants will defeat their enemies. All nations on Earth will find themselves blessed through your descendants because you obeyed me.”

How did Abraham reach the multitudes? How did they come to inherit the promised land? How did they bring blessing to the world? The promise came and the vision was fulfilled through his family and the multiplication of the 12 tribes of Israel. This is an important spiritual principle.

We are called to the same vision as Abraham. Galatians 3:28-29, “Since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.”

God is telling us to dream and to visualise multitudes of people. We must believe that our lives can be used to bless the multitudes bringing the transforming power of God’s love to people near and far.

Jesus Himself commissioned us with the same vision in Matthew 28:18-20, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”

Jesus is passionate for people everywhere. Jesus compares the world to a field and people to a crop that is ripe to experience the love of God. He sees a harvest and is looking for workers to go out in the fields. John 4:34-36, “‘My food,’ said Jesus, ‘is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”

This was the vision of the early church. We read in Acts 1:8, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus commissioned His 12 disciples to take his love and transforming power to people the world over.

How will we reach the multitudes? We will do it by endeavouring to minister God’s love to each and every member of the church. We will encourage each person to capture God’s vision for people and to follow his example of forming 12 disciples. We will do this with care and compassion and focus on it year in, year out reaching as many people as the Lord enables us to. My prayer is that as a church we capture this vision of love. Colossians 3:12 encourages us, “as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

So let’s commit that together:

  • We will, “follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children.”Ephesians 5:1
  • We will, “live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:2
  • We can say to people like the early church leaders, “We cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.” 1 Thessalonians 2:8

I believe we are entering a fruitful season of ministry where we take God’s love to people with great focus, urgency and care.

I want to finish today with 3 words for the church. Words for each and every one of us:

Psalm 92:12-15, “The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, ‘The Lord is upright; he is my Rock.”

Isaiah 60:20-22, “Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end. Then all your people will be righteous and they will possess the land for ever. They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendour. The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation. I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.”

Jeremiah 17:8, “They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.’

Prayer

Lord, thank you for your vision of love. Help me to throw off everything that hinders me in life and the sin that so easily entangles. Help me to run with perseverance the race that you have marked out for me. Help me to keep my eyes fixed upon you so that you may form me and grow my faith. Today give me a revelation of your great love and show me how to take this love to everyone that I know.

Declaration

Here I am send me.