During June we’re focusing on responding to God’s call. Please see the Monthly Prayer Focus page to read our strategic prayer request for this month.

By Lindy Pate

As I consider the theme of responding to God’s call, particularly in relation to revival, I find myself drawn to Romans 10. You may be familiar with this passage, maybe without knowing it. The following phrases may ring a bell. Faith comes by hearing. All who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. How beautiful are the feet that carry good news. I encourage you to take a moment and read it.

It is a great chapter about God’s role and people’s responsibility in the salvation experience. God sends and the good news is His. People have to hear before they can believe, but hearing isn’t equated with responding.

Perhaps this helps explain Jesus’s paradoxical statement about people hearing, but not hearing/understanding. Cf. Matt 13:14.

Last night I couldn’t sleep, at least not for a while. My mind was mulling through the events of the past couple of days. Plenty had happened and I had a case of mental indigestion. Frustrated with my brains refusal to follow the schedule and sleep, I cried out to God for help.

Unexpectedly help came in the form of conviction. I was reminded of my bad attitude and critical spirit the day before. God pointed out how he was bigger than the circumstance that bugged me. The thing that made this helpful was the soul-freeing joy that came with confession and repentance. Over 24 hours had passed and God was bringing this out now? Or maybe he had brought it up before and finally had my attention?

How often has God held out his hand without me responding? Is there a ‘hand’ that you are ignoring?

I believe that God’s call is in the day to day as well as the dramatic ‘Damascus road’ moments. Sometimes the life change is gradual but it builds to something huge. I pray that it does in Papua New Guinea.

Pray that God would continue to pursue all avenues to call out to His people in the Lower Ramu area. Pray that people would have moments of clarity when they are fully attune to God’s call. Pray that they would respond and this would lead to a revival.

Lindy is trained as a Bible translator.