Praying Through the "I"s

There are moments when the Lord speaks to your heart...and then speaks again and again. You can practically see his hand turning the pages of your busy life to get you focused again on the page he wants you on. I even sometimes get the sense that he is literally guiding my head, placing his hands gently on it and turning me in the direction he wants me to look. "There...there! Do you see it? There!"

We've been praying through a prayer book of unreached peoples with our Sunday School children for the past couple of years, impressing on their hearts and minds the need for people to be introduced to the gospel in their own heart language. The missions committee that I chair is also doing some thinking and praying in this direction.

Today I was on the Joshua Project website, scrolling through their list of unreached groups, people who have not had a significant chance to hear the gospel. I sorted the list alphabetically and then gave my best guess as to which page number I needed to be on (in the 72 page list) to look up a certain country where our church currently supports missionaries. My first guess was way off, so I entered another number. The page I landed on that time was the "I" page -- and was filled with people group after people group in India.

I clicked next. Still a whole page of India.

And next. And next. And next.

I thought my heart would break. Page after page of India, dozens upon dozens of people groups. The Lord's hand definitely seemed to be even in this, my quick click after click as I scrolled through these pages, each name representing sometimes a small group, sometimes thousands of real people.

And it's not just in this way I see his hand. He's been growing my heart toward India for a long time. Our family got involved in a learning/giving project with the organization Mission India a couple of years ago. We've stayed on their mailing list and several months ago I joined their Facebook page. Now almost every day,  I see another Indian face -- sometimes solemn and sad, sometimes brightly filled with joy -- looking back at me when I sign onto FB.

He keeps me looking. 

Because the Lord uses everything to get our attention and to shape our prayers, reminding us that he longs for the hearts of every single person he made.