Dr. Leighton Ford tells the story about when his daughter was young, several years ago.

I was minding the children while my wife was shopping. Debbie Jean had returned from school and was playing with her four-year-old brother in the back yard. When I called them to come in, Debbie Jean was missing.

I walked up and down the street calling her name—fearing the silence.

Later (after she was found) I reflected on the incident. During the nearly two hours that Debbie Jean was missing, nothing else mattered. In my study were books to be read, letters to be answered, articles to be written, planning to be done—but it was all forgotten. I could think of only one thing: my little girl was lost.

I had only one prayer and I prayed it a thousand times: “O God, help me to find her.”

“How often,” I ask myself, “had I felt that same terrible urgency about people who were lost from God?”

I had a similar experience when one of my baby sons was with his grandmother and I feared both were lost. I panicked a blue streak until I found them.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to realize in the depths of my heart that people without you are lost for all eternity. I’m available. Please use me to be as Christ to every life I touch, and do all that I can, in as many ways I can to help win others to you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

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1. Mark 16:15 (TLB/NLT).