Carter Conlon | Daily Devotionals

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.

God has given His church power over darkness. He can put power in your speech and give you words of wisdom, words of knowledge, and giftings of the Holy Spirit. He can give you the power to put away what needs to be put away and to take up what needs to be taken up. We're not looking anywhere else and to anyone else. This is His army. You are the plan of God. You are what He's going to use to defeat darkness.

God wants to use just ordinary men and women for His glory and for His kingdom's sake. Let this be the desire of your heart: "God, empower me, equip me, and send me, that I might be today a helper to somebody else." Live outside of your own needs and your own dreams, and watch the power of God come into your heart in a way such as you've never known. Talk to God.

It's time to pray.

You might be able to say, I've escaped drugs, I've escaped bad relationships, I've escaped drinking. You could probably name many things God has brought you out of. But have you escaped yourself? Have you escaped the heart that does not want to fight for somebody else?

It's possible to be thankful for everything that God has done for us and still spend our lives focused mainly on our own needs. The Christian life is not about living for ourselves. It's about living for the sake of somebody else.

Do not spend your life only celebrating what you have escaped. Ask God today to take you beyond yourself and begin using the freedom that He's given you to help somebody else find freedom too. That's what we teach at our Bible school at Summit International School of Ministry. The true Christian strength and power is found in living for the benefit of others.

It's time to pray.

Quite often God calls us when we feel the least qualified to do what He's calling us to do. Why couldn't it have been ten years ago when I was at every prayer meeting? Why couldn't it have been when I was fasting and passionate and completely given to the things of God?

Then the call of God comes and reminds us that it was never about us. It was never about our strength, our passion, or our qualifications. It was always about His presence and His purpose.

When God calls, don't look at your weaknesses. Look at the one who's calling you. If He has chosen you, He will give you everything you need to accomplish His purpose.

Join with us every Wednesday night at 7 p.m. Eastern Time at itstimetopray.org, where people from over 200 countries are gathering together and saying, "God, take me now in my weakness or my struggle, whatever it is, and give me your power and use my life for your glory."

It's time to pray.

What is it that God is asking you to do that you have put on hold? You know you should be doing it. Forgiveness might be one of those things.

You will not know the power of God until you and I are willing to do what we know to do. We can't selectively choose what we want from the Word of God and ignore the rest without there being a consequence. God's not asking us to understand everything before we obey Him. There are things that He's already made abundantly clear.

Maybe you've delayed, made excuses, or simply decided that you'll deal with it another day. Don't keep putting off what you know already that God is asking of you. Take the step that you know to take. If you need to forgive somebody, ask God today to forgive you for not forgiving them. And then take the step and say, "God, in Your strength, I release the debt."

It's time to pray.