Carter Conlon | Daily Devotionals

If anyone ever had a reason to be anxious, it was the Apostle Paul. Someone was always trying to kill him. He was shipwrecked, in jail, beaten, stoned, betrayed. However, Paul was the man God used to write, in Philippians 4:6-7, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. When you and I pray with thanksgiving, the end result is that we're not anxious. We have a heart that really trusts in God, and we have a peace which passes all understanding. It's not based on anything natural that we feel, know, or see. It's actually based on a confidence in God. And where do we get this confidence? Just ask God for it. He's a generous God. It's time to pray.

I'm reminding you today that you are part of the church of Jesus Christ. You are not just trying to survive. You are the church. You're an army. You are the voice that God wants to use. You are the life that He inhabits. Somebody needs you who lives out there. Somebody is fighting to get through and needs you to get through to them. Somebody is going to live because you make the choice to cross their river and get into their fight. It's Going to Be You that God sends where you live, where you work, where you travel, the streets that you walk on, the apartment building you live in, the hallway you walk down every day, the neighborhood that you call yours. Don't look somewhere else for somebody else. Go where God sends you and fight today for somebody who needs freedom. Remember, you're part of an army. Get up. Let God empower you and get going. It's time to pray.

In the Book of Esther, the king had not called for Esther for thirty days. Her relationship with the king was not at its pinnacle when the call of God came. Yet that was the moment that God chose to use her. Sometimes we imagine God can only use us when everything feels perfect. We think he can only call us when our faith is strong, our prayers are passionate, and our spiritual life feels effortless. But God's calling is not dependent on our feelings. Quite often he calls us when we feel the least qualified to do what He's calling us to do. His purpose remains even in seasons when we feel weak, distant, or uncertain. It was never about us. It was always about the plan of God and the sake of others. If God could use Esther in an unlikely season, He can use you too. Trust Him today and answer His call, and ask Him today what that calling is. Talk to Him about it, because above all, it's time to pray.

A friend of mine, Nicky Cruz, was once diagnosed as irredeemable. Psychologists said he was somebody who could not be salvaged. He was too damaged, too violent, too dark. Yet this man, after coming to Christ, went on to preach the gospel to multiples of millions of people. Never decide that somebody is beyond the reach of God because of what somebody says about them today. There are people all around us who may look hopeless, but God sees what their lives can become when His mercy and power reaches them. Somebody may not get the victory if you and I are unwilling to go. That's why today, I want to cross the river from where I am to where they are. And I personally don't care what it costs me. Look Beyond what a person is today and be willing to fight for what God is able to do in that life. Talk to God about it. It's time to pray.

There's a single mother crying at night, wondering how she's going to raise her family. There are young people being lied to and confused who don't even know if there's a reason for living. There are people living on the edge of taking their own lives because they cannot see a way forward. Then there are the addicted, the afflicted, the marginalized, the poor, and the nobodies in society. This is who you and I are called to reach. We may have found our green pasture and been blessed of God, and that's a wonderful thing, but somebody else still needs victory. In the Bible, in the Old Testament, there were two tribes that, although they found a beautiful place, they went across the river to fight for somebody else's sake. Today, I want to challenge you to stand up and fight for what really matters. Somebody today needs you. Ask God for the strength and the heart. It's time to pray.

James 2:26 says, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. There is an erroneous thought today that the accumulation of knowledge somehow in this or any other generation is faith. But true faith is not stagnant. True faith starts moving forward. It moves to the place which God is desiring to accomplish through the life that actually belongs to him. True faith moves into something that only God can do. That's the point James is trying to make. Don't say you have faith if you're not willing to go into the work of God. If you are willing to be led by God into the places that only God can take you, to do the things that only God can put in your heart to do, then that is actually true faith. It's time for you and I to begin to move forward in faith, and to do that, it's time to pray.

The Last Day Church is not supposed to go out with a whimper. According to what I read in Scripture, you and I go out a victorious church in Jesus Christ. We go out with a song of praise. We go out of this world with divine purpose given to us by God. And we don't go alone. We take a lot of people with us. I am convinced that there's going to be an amazing harvest in the days that we're now living in. Things might have to get a little rough for that harvest to come in, but it's worth it to see the lost come to Christ. Do not live merely trying to survive. Live with a sense of divine purpose and focus in your heart, and believe that you're going to take a lot of people with you as you live for Jesus Christ before you leave this world. You have been called of God. You've been called as an ambassador of this incredible forgiveness of the cross of Jesus Christ. Love people. Talk to God about it. It's time to pray.

Quite often God calls us when we have very little or nothing together. That's the pattern of scripture. How many people have disqualified themselves because they felt inadequate? How many have believed they were not strong enough, spiritual enough, talented enough, or prepared enough? Yet throughout scripture God continually chose ordinary people. He called those who knew that they needed Him. He called people who understood their weaknesses and learned to depend on His strength. Stop waiting until you think you have everything together before saying yes to God. His strength has always been revealed through simple, surrendered people who trust Him. Join with us every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Time at itstimetopray.org, where people from over 200 countries are coming together and saying, "God, here we are." And just as Isaiah once said in Isaiah 6, Here am I, Lord, send me. It's time to pray.

After open-heart surgery, I am more in, I think, than I've ever been in my lifetime. As long as God gives this body breath, I'm going to continue to go into colleges. I'm going to continue to speak to young people. What good is a new physical heart that I've been given if the years that I have left are not lived for God? I don't want to love Him less at the end than I did at the beginning. I want to love Him more than I ever have before. As long as God gives you breath, there's still a reason to live for Him. Don't spend the years He gives you holding back. My brother, my sister, keep Going. Keep caring, keep reaching, and keep speaking to those that God puts before you every day. Somebody's life or death, somebody's future, somebody's freedom depends on you being there and letting God speak through you to them. It's time to pray.

Are you feeling today like you've not been living the way you should? Maybe you know that you've missed it somewhere along the way. The good news today is that you don't have to hang your head. When the Lord ministers to His people, there's always joy. God sends you and I out with strength and joy. Be very, very sure today that He wants to cover you, to cleanse you, to change you, transform you, and use your life in the future for His glory. If you get up and head towards God, He will get to you before you get to Him. Be very sure that He loves you and that He will embrace you. You don't have to remain in the place where you have failed. Get up today with strength and joy and let God use your life for His glory. Yes, you, I'm talking to you right now. Get up today and let God use your life for His glory. There's so much that He wants to do through you. Talk to Him. It's time to pray.