Awakening Book Devotional By Matt BrownSample

"The End Goal (Glory of God)"

Philip Yancey shares an incredible story: “In South Africa I met a woman named Joanna— an ordinary, suburban woman.

The Lord’s Prayer says, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” So she had started praying, “Lord, show me a place where that’s not true, where Your will is not being done on earth as it is in heaven, because we’re supposed to be, as followers of You, part of the solution.”

Soon she found out that the most violent prison in South Africa, Pollsmoor Prison, was just minutes from her home. That year the prison recorded 279 acts of violence—almost one a day! It was run by gangs. You would actually get points by stabbing somebody in another gang. If you stabbed a warden, you would get a lot of points. She thought, Well, that’s not right, so she started going every day.

The year after she started going, there weren’t 279 acts of violence in the prison. There were two. The BBC sent a camera crew from London to figure out what happened. When I finally met with Joanna and her husband I said, “These guys are murderers; they’re rapists; they’re monsters. You just go in and act like a youth group and change the whole prison. What really happened?”

She looked at me, kind of shocked, and said this 
line that I’ve repeated many places in the world because it so struck me. She said, “Well, of course, Philip, God was already present in Pollsmoor Prison. We just had to make him visible.”

My friend Dave shared with me in response to this story, “In Genesis 28:16, it says, “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’” Many in our society are asleep to the reality of God and will only be made aware of him by our intentionality and involvement in their lives. Ordinary people like us are charged to make a loving God visible.”

As we allow God to shine through our diligence at work, in our graciousness towards others, and when we speak of the gospel—God’s glory will be made visible to more and more people.