In Mexico during worship sessions, we would often sing the song Lead me to the Cross. At the bridge, it's a modification to the chorus, and instead of singing "Lead me to the Cross," we would sing "Lead me to Your Heart."
One day as we poured out our hearts with this song, as we got to the bridge, God revealed something I had already been kind of experiencing with all the coldness and wetness of the trip.
I think we sing "Lead me to Your Heart," with sort of an idea that His heart is a happy place where we will be safe from pain and uncomfortableness. But as we sang it that night He revealed to me:
God's heart is not a comfortable place. It is filled with pain and hurt, a longing for His people. His heart is broken for the people of the world, and in order for us to be there our hearts must be broken as well. His heart involves going out of our comfort zone to reach His people. His heart involves sleeping in tents in the freezing cold in the rain and the mud. His heart involves hugging filthy children and playing with them. His heart involves abandoning everything in order to reach the people He loves.
In Matthew 13 Jesus tells the parable of a man who found treasure in a field and sold everything he had in order to buy the field and get the treasure. This parable is used in Matthew as a description of what the kingdom of heaven is like, but I believe it applies to us and God's heart. God's heart is people. When we find His people hurting, He wants us to give up EVERYTHING in order to reach them. Didn't He do the same thing?
AMEN!!!! this is soooo awesome!!
ReplyDeleteI love this. And you're totally right: I do thing of God's heart as a warm, fuzzy, safe place. And it's not. It's absolutely not. Conviction. Conviction, conviction, conviction.
ReplyDelete