I really want to write a book. Not exactly sure what my topic would be, but I feel like it might be based on the following paragraph taken from my personal journal:
I could not have imagined that praying over my journal that night would result in my fingers running over these tear-soaked pages time and time again, pondering what God was calling my heart to. Since I wrote those words, almost exactly one year ago, I have read and re-read that prayer. There is something beautiful about being brought to your knees and moved to tears in prayer to the Father.
I always thought of myself as "charitable". Always took at least one tag off the Angel Tree. Made sure to give canned food to the Foodbank. Took my coats and blankets to the mission. Put an extra $5 in the collection plate at Christmas. Yes, I was "charitable". You can give without love, but you cannot truly love without giving. Giving, the kind that stretches you past what you think you can do on your own, the kind that makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable, the kind that pushes the limits of your heart... that kind of giving can only be done of love. And until last year, when I hit my knees and asked God to open my heart to this kind of giving - the kind that requires blood, sweat, and tears - I had no idea how beautifully painful, and awesomely rewarding it would feel to be uncomfortable for God.
The bottom line, friends, is that giving is not what you do with your hands or you money or your time... it's what you do with your heart.
11 November 2010
Lord, I just pray that you reach into my heart and touch it in such a way that makes my yearning for Your causes permanent. God, open my eyes to the world around me that is crying out for love to be put into action. Let me be full of compassion and mercy for all of Your children. Let me love as You have. Let me reach out to those the world would discard. Show me how to love the world for what You made it to be - not what we made it to be. Give me Your eyes, that I might see people the way You do. Lord, Let me know where You want me to go for You. Where are You calling me? Where do You, Lord, need me to serve Your people? Show me where, tell me how. Break my heart for what breaks Yours - make it my life's mission, my purpose. And Lord, please give me the strength to follow Your call.
I could not have imagined that praying over my journal that night would result in my fingers running over these tear-soaked pages time and time again, pondering what God was calling my heart to. Since I wrote those words, almost exactly one year ago, I have read and re-read that prayer. There is something beautiful about being brought to your knees and moved to tears in prayer to the Father.
I always thought of myself as "charitable". Always took at least one tag off the Angel Tree. Made sure to give canned food to the Foodbank. Took my coats and blankets to the mission. Put an extra $5 in the collection plate at Christmas. Yes, I was "charitable". You can give without love, but you cannot truly love without giving. Giving, the kind that stretches you past what you think you can do on your own, the kind that makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable, the kind that pushes the limits of your heart... that kind of giving can only be done of love. And until last year, when I hit my knees and asked God to open my heart to this kind of giving - the kind that requires blood, sweat, and tears - I had no idea how beautifully painful, and awesomely rewarding it would feel to be uncomfortable for God.
The bottom line, friends, is that giving is not what you do with your hands or you money or your time... it's what you do with your heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment