When I get to heaven I’m going to have a few thousand people to thank.
First of all I’ll probably spend the first several ages thanking God the Father for his plan to save me, Jesus for carrying out that plan and the Holy Spirit for opening my blind eyes to the gospel and regenerating me. Then I’ll spend the next few thousand ages thanking the Lord for his incredible grace throughout my life.
But I’ll have many others to thank as well.
Like my Dad and Mom, who first told me about Jesus, and prayed for me for years. And numerous preachers, teachers and pastors who have taught and inspired me in my life. And lots of brothers and sisters who encouraged me and prayed for me through the years. I’ll also want to thank a lot of guys I never met in my lifetime – like Matthew, Mark, Paul, Peter, and other writers of Scripture. And as I’m making my way around heaven I’ll thank a lot of other guys who influenced and helped me, like Charles Spurgeon, John Flavel, and John Newton.
But that won’t be all.
I want to thank saints who long before I was born prayed long and hard for God’s kingdom to come in our nation. People who prayed for years for Jesus to save thousands in my city. If they hadn’t prayed, God might not have saved me.
I’ll thank people who prayed for laborers, because had they not prayed, God might not have called the evangelist who first shared the gospel with me. Had people not asked God to send laborers into the harvest that young man who gave me a tract in the Student Union when I was in college may not have done so.
And you know what will be really cool and amazing? People will come up to thank us.
Someone from India or North Korea may come up to us and thank us that they are in heaven because we prayed God would save people in their country. Someone from the Philippines may thank us for praying for the advance of the gospel there, because God answered and sent a preacher to them.
We have no idea how powerful our prayers are. We can’t imagine how God unleashes his mighty power when we pray a seemingly weak prayer for his kingdom to come on earth. We can’t fathom that God actually uses our prayers to raise up evangelists and pastors and teachers.
Let’s pray earnestly for the kingdom to come. Pray earnestly for laborers. Brothers and sisters yet to be saved will thank you in heaven someday.
