"The Nations"

Ask of Me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possessions. Psalm 2:8

Today I was thinking about the prayer of Jabez which can be found in 1 Chronicles 4:10. One of the key things that Jabez requested was that God would enlarge his territory. It also tells us that God granted him his request. This made me stop and think? How often are really willing to look to God for more than our immediate sphere of influence? And what I mean by that is this ..... we can all faithfully believe for our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. We can easily believe for family, close friends and even our co-workers as well. It is easy to ask and to keep on asking that those that we love or those that pertain to us would come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We obviously love them and want them to be added to the kingdom, but ...? How often do we give a thought to the millions and millions of strangers out there? How often do we ask God to enlarge our territory and to take us outside our comfort zones?

I wonder, are we like Philip? Philip was open and available enough to hear, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. and sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot." Acts 8:26-29 We all know the rest of the story. The eunuch not only got saved but baptized as well at which point Philip was then translated off to Azotus by the Spirit of the Lord to share the gospel of Christ there as well.

An influential eunuch on a desert road one minute, the city of Azotus the next. Seems to me Philip was available to more than his immediate family and friends and, while I believe with all my heart that family, friends, and the people in your sphere of influence are important shouldn't we also have an eye on the bigger picture? Shouldn't we be asking Him to enlarge our territory to include nations? Shouldn't we be willing and available to go out on a desert road as the Spirit leads because God knows that there is a heart ready to receive the truth of the gospel?And here is the big question, are we willing to be wherever He needs us even if it means the Spirit of God carries us there? Are we willing to have a heart for people everywhere or just our own immediate back yard?

How willing are we really to let Him enlarge our backyard to include the nations of the world? How often do you ask Him to enlarge your territory or even  ... to give you a heart for the nations?