Have You Seen His Heart Lately?

Today my heart is full and heavy all at the same time.

Our team from church leaves for Africa this afternoon, but I won't be on that plane.  And that breaks my heart.  I absolutely fell head over heels in love with the people in Zimbabwe last year. My time there was life changing.

While my heart is sad I don't get to be there this year, my heart is also pondering all the things God has done in me since my time there last year.

I saw so many new facets of God and His creation while there, but the greatest and probably most life changing that I saw was His heart for people.  My eyes were completely opened to the fact that God doesn't just love America. He didn't just die for Americans. He is filled with compassion and an abundant love for peoples of every tribe, nation and color.  He knows them each by name. Names I can't even pronounce. Names and faces I will never know or see.  He knows them intimately.  He knows them personally.  Before they were ever created He saw their substance, and all their days were written in His book before they ever came to be. (Psalms 139:16)

That just blows my mind. I can't even keep up with my own 3 kids names half the time.  Yet, He knows every hair on our head. He knows us each by name. Wow. 


As I think back on a particular night over there last year, I go back to an evening where we had shared the Jesus film on a big screen out in the middle of the bush in a city called Triangle. People were responding to the invitation at the end to recieve Christ. That's when it hit me.  That's when I realized and grabbed hold of the truth that God so loved the "WORLD".  He LOVES these people. He is filled with compassion for them. He desires intimate relationship with them. He longs to be gracious to them. People who I have no idea who they are, He loves them.

 

 

 



This has really opened my eyes to see that my heart is so far from His. God forgive me. God forgive us that we become so consumed in our own lives that we neglect those whom we DO know, those that we DO see. I don't have to go to Africa to find hurting people. I can walk outside my door and I am surrounded by them. I am surrounded by orphans and widows. I am surrounded by the broken and downtrodden.

So what do I really take away from all this today? I go today and I love the world. I love the people around me. I love the unlovable. I go to the orphans and widows in my personal world and care for them. I go to the poor and helpless and I love them. I become an extension of God's heart to the people in my Jerusalem. I show mercy and love instead of hatred and judging. I go to the highways and byways in my area and I extend the love of Christ. I look to the people in my circle of influence and I share the love of Jesus with them.

My prayer today is that He break our heart with what breaks His. That He gives us eyes to see His people and His creation the way He does. That He gives us a passion for people like He has. And ultimately, that He just transforms me to be more like Him, and much less like me.

Living on Purpose

The look in the picture says it all, huh? One is always smiling perfectly.  One is doing the half smile because he hates the awkwardness of pictures.  And then there's the one who absolutely hates having his picture made. Ever. 

Today was our first day of school. A tad emotional for this mom I must say. It's our first day of high school, our first day of middle school, and our last first day of elementary school for my 5th grader. Time flies.

It seems like yesterday I was just meeting the boys for the first time. Sigh....

I was so amused yesterday as they were enjoying their official last day of summer break.  They were trying to soak up every last minute before it was over.  They probably were more intentional yesterday than they were all summer. They were living every moment on purpose.

Which got me thinking...

They spent all summer just doing this and that, and basically taking summer at a hit and miss kind of attitude. They weren't intentional in what they did, or how they enjoyed it.  They just played and went about their business like summer would last forever. Until yesterday. And then they realized summer was over. So they went scurrying around trying to purposefully capture every moment.

Sounds to me like how we live our Christian lives, doesn't it! We live day to day, never being intentional in what we are doing. We live like whatever we are doing now will go on forever. We fail to live our lives for a purpose or with a purpose. UNTIL...

Until tragedy strikes.
Until our circumstances change.
Until a dream gets crushed.
Until times change.
Until....you fill in the blank.

Then what? We scurry around trying to make the most of things. We are forced to be intentional in what we are doing.

I don't want to live that way. I don't want you to live that way.

What if we lived our lives in such a way that we were intentional about each day. We made it our mission to seek the heart of God and follow HIS plans for the day. We lived our life on purpose and with passion, making the most of every moment, in every circumstance. What would our lives look like?

It's a new year. It's a new day. It's a new season. Let's live intentionally and on purpose. Who knows what we might accomplish for the Kingdom!

Stacy