God, break our heart for what breaks yours.
Pray earnestly.
He commands from His broken heart as He looks out over all the harassed and helpless.
I imagine that He stood there between the lost sheep of Israel and the disciples, staring at His own laborers after He’s given this command. Watery eyes locked on them. Send out laborers.
“Peter, I think Rabboni means us,” Matthew whispered.
And 2000 years later, we pray earnestly:
God break our heart for what breaks Yours. May we be the broken hearted who posses a radical sense of urgency for your lost sheep. May we get the front row seat to your signs and wonders, your miracles. Use us. Please God, let our hearts not be hardened.
I prayed that after 29 years of sitting in the pews. And I knew it was foster care we were supposed to do because we had empty bedrooms and Jesus said, “if you love me, take care of my children in distress.”
And 25% of kids in care will experience PTSD, 20% will experience homelessness, and half will be unemployed by the time they are 25 years old. And I’ve looked into their eyes as I’ve tucked them in at night and I’ve witnessed firsthand the distress. They’re aware of their own fragility and vulnerability.
And there had been times I’d say to myself, hmm, someone should really do something about the foster care crisis in America. And I’m someone, so I decided I could be the someone who does something.
Mission trips are great, but we aren’t called to go on mission trips. We are called to live missionally. Maybe your thing is international adoption, or homelessness, or education, or loving your neighbors so powerfully and consistently. Maybe you support children via Compassion International or World Vision. Your thing could be equal rights for the marginalized or maybe you’re a Big Brother or Big Sister. Or your son or daughter with special needs has never thanked your for your patience and tears, the ones you cry for them daily but your love and patience is otherworldly. Maybe it’s help for people who are drug-addicted. That counts too. Oh, friend, how all these things ever count.
These things we do to restore the world to life pre-fall. This is what brings the Kingdom.
But the thing is this:
I think a lot of us don’t know what that thing is that we are supposed to do.
And that’s why we are commanded to pray earnestly. God, what do you want me to do with the time, talent, and treasures that have been entrusted to me? Break my heart for what breaks yours.
Here’s the other thing: now is not the right time.
I know, it wasn’t for us either. “The right time” is an excuse that simply means that, at the end of the day, laborers weren’t going out into the harvest. The sheep are still helpless and harassed.
Friend, don’t wait for the call if you already have the command. Pray earnestly. Go into the harvest. This is how you become a world-changer and a Kingdom-bringer. This is how the lost sheep are wooed into the Kingdom.
So let’s pray that dangerous prayer and woo the lost sheep into the Kingdom. This is a Kingdom of Love.
Questions to ponder:
What’s the one thing that you’re investing your life into? How are you living your life in such a way that makes Jesus beautiful and compelling?