A Heart Like His
Most of us in America live fairly comfortable lives, what with air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter, clean running water out of the faucet, plenty of food in the refrigerator, gas in the car, and indoor plumbing with a supply of Charmin, pretty comfortable right? According to statistics 1 in 9 people world wide do not have access to safe and clean drinking water, and some 795 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy life. I personally have never had to go to bed hungry, and have never had to worry if my drinking water was safe.
You may be asking why I am telling you all of this?? To make you feel guilty?? No, not at all, instead I tell you all of this to make you feel blessed. I also tell you this because my whole life I have seen homeless people, and commercials of hungry children, I was told more than once to eat all my food because their were starving children in Africa! I have said to myself countless times, what a shame, or how awful. When I see the ugly side of our world, not just hunger, homelessness, but also crime, divorce, sickness, disease, abuse, human trafficking, among a whole array of others, again I think how awful. That was until about six to eight months ago, I started praying, "Lord, break my heart for what breaks yours."
The prayer I prayed was sincere, I meant it, I prayed it because I was in desperate search to be closer to God. We sing about it all the time, "Lord, we are your hands and feet", "break our heart for what breaks yours." I had sang those very words many times, but I prayed them and meant them, I prayed this prayer continuously, not just once and forget it kind of prayer.
About two months ago, I was laying in bed, I couldn't sleep so I prayed, and like a movie screen playing before my eyes, I saw it. I saw, hungry children begging for food, people living on the streets, families being torn apart, runaways alone and afraid. I saw people burying loved ones, people suffering from disease and people being sold into slavery. I began to weep, God had answered my prayer, he broke my heart for what breaks his, which I am certain was just a drop in the bucket to what our heavenly Father sees everyday. My heart broken, all I could do was cry and pray.
Now I am not sure what I am suppose to do with this prayer that God answered, other than right now I am profoundly more aware of the heart of God. His word says, "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to see me." Matthew 25:35-36 In my bible those words are written in red, meaning those of the words of Jesus himself! I know since this answered prayer, I am less about me and more about the Father's business, I am more aware of hurting people and am more concerned about how I can help stop the hurting than I've ever been.
I know individually we do not have the power to stop any of these terrible things I have mentioned. However, together if we all start with being more aware and more willing to help, we can make a huge difference. I urge you to pray the prayer for God to break your heart for what breaks his, or at least to become more sensitive to those around us that are hurting and in need.
Father, God, please break