30 Days of Prayer for the Harvest
Day 20 – Saturday, January 31, 2026
Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-15
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
This week, we have been seeing that a crucified Savior can only be proclaimed with divine power by a crucified people. As followers of Christ must be people of the cross. The apostle Paul serves as a great example for us of such a person. Paul was forced to defend his ministry against detractors who suggested he and his co-missionaries were out of their minds. Paul used the phrase “beside ourselves” to suggest that level of insanity (2 Corinthians 5:13). It’s to be expected that a non-believer would think it insane for Paul to keep doing the very thing that brought him pain and suffering (1 Corinthians 2:14). Despite all the danger, they simply would not stop preaching about the gospel of Christ to as many people as they could. Why?
Paul answers that saying “For the love of Christ compels us” (2 Cor. 5:14). Love is the power that accounts for Paul’s remarkable life and willing sacrifice for the church and the glory of God. Was Paul talking about his love for Christ or Christ’s love for him? The context makes it clear that Paul’s motivation was Christ’s love because he goes on to describe Christ’s preeminent expression of His love, “One died for all.” It is the love of God in Christ expressed in His death for our sins. This is what compels us.
Paul is driven—compelled by Christ’s love—to keep telling others about it. He is captive to the love of Christ, constrained by it. Because of the love of Christ, Paul can’t veer to the right or the left away from his calling. He can’t retreat. Christ’s love literally controls his choices. It lights a flame in his soul that no earthly comfort or hellish persecution could extinguish.
Christ has died to pay for the sins of all humanity and His death has become the death required for all to pay for their personal sin. In a spiritual sense, all who trust in Christ died with Him when He died. Now that we have died with Christ by faith in Him, we can no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died for us and rose again. Christ intends that those who receive the gift of his death for their sin, will respond by dying to self in order to selflessly live for their Lord.
Isn’t this just another way of saying what Jesus taught? “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).
When we possess this compelling, Spirit-driven motivation of Christ’s love, we are zealous to see the lost be reconciled with God (2 Cor. 5:20). Here is what controls, constrains, and impels me, says Paul: It is that Jesus chose not to hate me (though I was hateful), but to love me (though I was unlovely), and gave Himself for me that I might now live for Him.
I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might’st ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead;
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou giv’n for Me?
I gave, I gave My life for thee,
What hast thou giv’n for Me?[1]
Today’s Prayer
(This prayer is a model, please make the prayer your own from the heart).
Father, what wondrous love, what amazing grace, what infinite mercy You have show us in Christ! You demonstrated You own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This is love, not that we loved You, but that You loved us and gave Your only begotten Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We love You because You have first loved us.
Lord, since You have so loved us, we are compelled by Your love to love others. We love the church, the family of believers in Christ. And we love those for whom You died who have yet to believe in Christ. And You have even called us to love our enemies, just as Christ did.
May I be so compelled by You love that nothing and no one could keep me from the ministry of reconciliation—calling others to be reconciled to You as well. You have committed this ministry to us. May we be faithful to do it.
Amen.
Today’s Action
Remember to pray for someone to come to church with you on February 15. Write down their names. Look for ways you can show the love of Christ to them.
Please take time to share with me who you have invited that I can be praying for you and them also. Comment on this post to share.
[1] Frances R. Havergal, I Gave My Life for Thee (1859), Public Domain, Baptist Hymnal 2008 #174.
