I often wake to an uprising stir in my heart.
Each day is fresh, but not easy.
In the seeking of God's riches lately, I don't seem to get far before I'm turned upside down.
A few times in Luke 18 & 19 you see the disciples rebuking people in their desperate requests of Jesus.
When people brought babies to Jesus, his 'bodyguards' (the disciples) rebuked them. When a blind man yelled, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!", they rebuked him and told him to be silent.
This stirred me up.
I can't lie, for some reason, I too seem to think I'm Jesus' 'bodyguard' at times.
When I am confronted with the fact that I surely am not, it's quite humbling.
Whether I'm leading a mission trip overseas, in the states, or I'm simply going about my day, I find that people flag me down often. These people have needs and a desire to be set free, whether they know it or not. They can be met, but my response is what matters.
I am confronted with the times that I was 'on a mission' with Jesus and someone tried to stop me, yet I resolved that I was 'on a mission' and moved on. In those times, I totally miss that my mission is the beating heart that lies before me. I miss that the Spirit may be moving me aside my 'mission'.
If you look at the above instances from Scripture, and others surrounding them, you can see that Jesus never turned the people away. In fact, He confronted them with more than a listening ear – He assessed their needs and met them.
He embraced the children.
He brought the blind man to himself and healed him.
He told Zacchaeus, "Come down, for I'm coming to your house."
Not once were these searching hearts denied.
The mission of Jesus is to capture hearts and bring them back to the Father.
But what about those who come with manipulative motives (Pharisees, etc)?
Jesus never denied them either.
He assessed their hearts and met them with the loving truth – exactly what they needed.
Jesus himself proclaimed his calling in the temple:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Shouldn't our mission be the same?
Jesus doesn't need anymore bodyguards, he needs willing hearts and open eyes to the needs of the world – those willing to see and meet the needs of the beating hearts before us.
Jesus' said it himself, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (Luke 19:10)
