• Giving God Glory by seeking His heart

A Seeking Heart

~ Hearing God's Voice in the Chaos.

A Seeking Heart

Monthly Archives: July 2016

Full on Replacement Needed!

28 Thursday Jul 2016

Posted by Melissa G in Christian Growth, Encouragement

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, compelling, devotional, does God send people to hell, encouragement, God's call, God's compassion for the lost, God's love, love, our compassion for the lost, our love, our responsibility, our responsibility to the lost, the lost, the pit, witnessing

Ezekiel 36 heart image

A few years back God began asking me if I really loved people the way that I was called to love them. More specifically, do I love LOST people the way that HE would have me to love them?

Do I love people as He loves people?

Which led to the question: How does God love people anyway?

Most of us know the answer to that question whether we realize it, or not. John 3:16 tells us that God gave everything He had so that we would come to know Him; not just you and me, but every soul on this earth. God’s heart for the lost has such an intensity that we cannot comprehend it. It’s unfathomable!

So, how am I as a Christ follower supposed to love the lost? How can I attain the heart of my Savior? How can I love the lost with the same intensity as God when I can’t even really understand it?

As I was thinking through all of these questions, the Lord had me to imagine a scenario. Think with me for a moment that you and your family were living in a forest. In that same forest there was a lion. The only way to rid you and your family of the lion for ever was to dig a massive pit. You knew that one day you would drive the lion into the pit and he would be in that pit for all time. He would never be able to harm your family again and the whole forest would be at peace.

Before the lion’s time had come, many of your own children fell into the pit that had been dug only for the lion. You had fully anticipated this. After all, the pit was well camouflaged and it was on the main pathway that every one in your family used. To save your family, you had placed a rope in the pit. All your children would have to do would be to grab the rope and you would pull them right out. But, they continually refused to grab the rope! You would plead with them, send others to plead with them, but they would NOT grab the rope! Would your heart not break? Would you not feel to the very core of your being the death of that family member as they expired in the pit for no reason? You would know that they were not supposed to die in that pit. You had made every provision for their escape and they simply refused to accept your help. How would you feel? I imagine that your pain would be unimaginable!

That’s just a small representation of how God must feel when people refuse to accept Him. II Peter 3:9 tells us that God does not want any to perish. He is patiently waiting for all to grab the rope. He has made provision for ALL to escape. Some simply choose to not accept it.

What God did for us is so much more than simply dropping a rope, but this analogy helped me to think about my reaction to people who are still “in the pit”. Do I truly hurt when people refuse to grab the rope or, do I simply think, “They’ve heard the Gospel, my job is done”? Do I plead with them to grab the rope? Or, am I satisfied with my family escaping the pit and flippantly throwing money at the rest of humanity to figure it out? Do I really love the lost?

In Luke 14, we see a description of a slave being told by his Master to compel people to come to the banquet. This is someone who is pleading for people to grab the rope. Not once, but many times. If possible, this individual would physically make a person to grab the rope. But, he can’t. He can simply plead and beg as his Master commanded.

Often times, I am so bound up in not offending someone, I can’t even hear the Holy Spirit’s leading. What if my heartfelt plea is all that is needed? What if knowing that someone truly cares about their eternal soul is what would prompt a person to truly take a look at the pit around them and grab the rope? Why am I so callous if this is all that it would take?

The Bible tells me that I have the Holy Spirit living inside of me and yet, where is my intensity for the lost? We are called to go to the edge of the pit and plead, to wiggle the rope in an enticing way and have the heart of God that breaks for those who simply choose to ignore His provision.

Oh, that my soul would break with the urgency that God has called me to. Oh, that we as a church would RUN to those whom God has called us to go. Oh, that God would give me His heart for the lost.

Ezekiel 36:26 tells us, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” I cannot do this on my own. I cannot “work up” a compassion for the lost without a completely new heart. Even as a Christian, I have a heart of stone too many times. This Scripture shows me the only way. I need a FULL replacement. My heart needs to be His heart; my intensity, His intensity. My thoughts need to be His thoughts.

Romans 7:18, tells me clearly what I have refused to see before, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” For me, it takes more than filling, it takes a replacement. For me, it takes God replacing my heart with His heart, replacing my thinking with His.

So, today I am asking God to replace me. I’m asking that He replace us – His church. I am asking for more than a filling. I’m asking for a full on replacement. Let’s join together and ask God to do what only He can do through us and in us to see a lost world come to know Him.

Seeking Hearts Ministries      My Story

Advertisement

Is Love Blind?

22 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by Melissa G in Christian Growth, Encouragement

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, encouragment, family devotions, love, love is blind, love is not blind, loving our neighbor, loving people, loving smart, perspective, smart ways to love

love-word image

Is love really blind? We’ve heard that phrase all of our lives. Actually, since Chaucer around 1405, generations of people have heard that “love is blind.” But, is it true?

Philippians 1:9-10 says, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent [distinguish between things which differ] in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.” Philippians tells us that love is not blind. In fact, it really tells us that love makes us smarter, more discerning, not less.

Vanna Bonta said, “Love is not blind. Love sees what is most true.” That’s right on, isn’t it? Think about our God. First John 4:16 tells us that “God is love”. We know God isn’t blind to our faults, so why would we think His love in us would make us blind? John 3:16 proves this. It says that God loved the world and then gave His only Son to die for us. If love made God blind to our faults, He would not have seen our sin. He would not have seen our need for a Savior. But, because His love is never blind He discerned the most excellent path for all mankind. Just as God’s love gives Him discernment, His love in us will do the same.

Maybe you guys are great in this area, but I confess that I have often held back my love from an individual because I wanted to “stay smart” and “keep a level head”. In actuality, I’ve been shooting myself in the foot. When I love people as God loves me and has empowered me to love, I get a discernment that I otherwise would not have. Loving people makes me smarter. I’ve had it backwards all along! Shocking! I know!

Loving people makes us able to see and think more clearly. It doesn’t make us blind. Verse ten of Philippians one says that love helps us to “approve the things that are excellent”. Romans 12:2 says that when we renew our minds we are able to “prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” That word prove is the same root word as approve in our Philippians passage. So, when we renew our minds from thinking that love makes us blind, we can receive the truth of God’s Word that love actually makes us more aware, more perceptive, more intuitive.

Matthew 22:39 tells us that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. Are we blind to our own faults? Usually we know them really well, but if we’re honest we still look out for ‘ole number one. We still want what’s best for us. Are we going to know our neighbors faults? Yes. The more we get to know them and love them, we will see their faults. But, through God’s grace He will empower us to see clearly and discern what our love should look like in every situation.

Do we need to be smart when it comes to loving people? Yes! But, what I’m finding is that when I am pressed in hard to the Lord He whispers things I need to know. When I love Him as I am supposed to (with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength) I can love others as He has planned. It doesn’t become co-dependent, or in a direction He never intended, it stays smart and active and pure. When it’s His love in me, it’s a love that is guaranteed to be smart, strong, invasive and very discerning.

Don’t be scared. Love is not blind. Love is all seeing, all knowing and ever willing to help us engage, discern and perceive the right way to cherish each individual as God has called us to. Let’s decide to love people as God intended for us to love.

My Love Story              Seeking Hearts Ministries

 

Spreading it Before the Lord

15 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by Melissa G in Christian Growth, Encouragement

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

anxiety, attacks, battles, burdens, choices, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, encouragement, enemies, family devotions, focus, hope, hurts, laying our burdens down, peace, perspective, trust, walking with God

WaddedPapers

So, Hezekiah is an interesting figure in the Old Testament. I love parts of his story and I’m not crazy about others…the norm for any human, I suppose. In Isaiah 36 and 37, we see Hezekiah come up against a vicious enemy. This enemy had destroyed many kingdoms and was now after Hezekiah’s. Actually, the enemy was now coming against God’s Kingdom. So, Hezekiah had a choice. He could choose to freak out, or he could lay his issues at the feet of His King. I love that Hezekiah did both.

Isaiah 37:1 says that when Hezekiah heard what his enemy had threatened he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth. He realized the seriousness of the situation and acted accordingly. Then, the Word tells us he went to the house of the Lord. Isaiah 37:14 says, “Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the LORD.”

I can’t tell you how much I love this. Hezekiah took all the threats, all the accusations, all the hate and arrogance of his enemy and spread it before the Lord. Then, he prayed. He prayed about everything that was on his heart. He refocused himself by emphasizing God’s power, then he told God about what his enemy had said. He poured it all out knowing that His God was in control.

Can you imagine the fear and anxiety that were running through Hezekiah? Can you imagine all the issues and scenarios running through his mind? After all, he could still smell the sackcloth yet He chose to trust His God.

So, I ask you, what do you need to lay before the Lord? What do you need to spread before His feet? Who has assaulted you? Who do you think is out to get you? Who still stirs up anger when you hear their name? Write their names on some paper. Write every situation down and spread it before your God. Pour it out before Him. Psalm 62:8 tells us that He is a refuge for us and that He wants us to empty our hearts out to Him. Stay before the Lord for as long as it takes and then take every scrap of paper, wad it up, toss it in the trash and accept the peace from your God that only He can give. Feel the anxiety leave, the fear give way and the fresh hope of your Lord consume you.

Only our God can do that for us. Only our God can replace fear with trust and anger with love. Let’s spread all of our anxieties before Him and allow Him to do His perfect work today.

My Story       Seeking Hearts Ministries

You are Glorious!

01 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by Melissa G in Encouragement

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

a poem, adoration, Christian encouragement, christian poetry, devotional, encouragement, God, hope, Jesus, our God, perspective, poem of praise, poetry, praise, thanksgiving

woman breathing

Our eyes see You dimly,

But, You are still glorious!

Our ears hear only a tinkling charm of Your voice,

Yet, You are still the sweetest sound we have ever heard.

We have caught the slightest scent of who You are,

And it is still to us the most beautiful fragrance of all.

 

We have opened our mouths wide and You have filled them,

Yet, our hearts know there is so much more of You.

We have felt the slightest pressure from Your touch and fallen to our knees;

We know no mortal can feel more and live

Yet, we want more of You.

We want more of You, O God.

 

May this be our heart’s cry today and every day.

To God be the glory!

Seeking Hearts Ministries       My Story

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • October 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013

Categories

  • Christian Growth
  • Encouragement
  • Fasting
  • Guest Bloggers
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • A Seeking Heart
    • Join 76 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • A Seeking Heart
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...