I’ve been humbled. Again. Apparently, this journey of dying to my flesh and living only for Christ is on-going and never-ending! This time, it has to do with hearts. People’s hearts; empty, shallow, missing some huge part of themselves. These people are the outcast, the forgotten. They are kept by the force of the enemy in their desperate lives, consuming substances to fill their driving need for something more. They are sad-eyed, loveless and alone. I am talking about the women and men of the “ghettos” in our towns, cities, countries. The precious children of God who haven’t chosen yet to embrace His massive outpouring of love and provision for them. They can’t see Him with their flesh eyes, and they haven’t opened their heart eyes yet.
Oh, God, give me more compassion for these, your creation. They are just as precious to you as I. They may be lost right now, but you have stored up salvation and freedom for them just as I have been so graciously given. God, make me softer in you.
As I watched the beloved couple who run this ministry to the forgotten tenderly embrace, lay hands on, and laugh with these, I was overwhelmed by the visibility of Christ’s love in them. I could see it, the people in need could feel it, and those precious pastors didn’t even stop to analyze it. They just kept praying, kept giving, kept loving.
So I am severely wrecked, once again, by God’s mercy and grace. By His unstoppable forgiveness and compassion. By His preciousness, His glorious love so easily and freely demonstrated yesterday in those lives. Oh, may this overwhelming new understanding never grow dry in me. I no longer desire the comfortable way, I want to continue down this road of the unknown in Him.
He’s getting me ready, I know it. He’s preparing me for a lifetime ministry of His love to His people. Whether those people are the rich or the poor, the remembered or the forgotten, the old or the young. They are all His, created in His image, needing His hand of love in a tangible way.
This is just the beginning, and I’m already a mess. Humbled. May I stay in this place as He grows me.
