02 March 2007

The Fount

The other day I was burdened just thinking about several friends who have family members who are running every direction except toward Christ. Heartbreaking. So many people, so many of our kids, deceived by the world, by themselves, ultimately deceived by the enemy into thinking that other things are better than knowing Him. Thinking that sin of all things is better than Him. What! How foolish we are. I had been reading and praying these verses from Proverbs 28...
9If one turns away his ear from hearing the law,
even his prayer is an abomination.
13Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
14Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always,
but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

I had been praying that God would have mercy and turn our hearts to the law so that He would hear us. These are kind of hard words, ya know. It doesn't look good for those who turn away from Him and his Law to do their own thing and seek their own way. Scary when you think about it. What will come to them if they don't repent. And so I was just burdened because my friends had tried to speak truth into their friend's lives, but they just wouldn't listen. We try every week to get students to "get it," to see God for who He is, to seek Him, to at least care about knowing Him. And yet, so often it doesn't seem to be working. His Word never returns void, but it's just not always evident to our eyes. But the thing is that all of this is just more proof that it's not about what man can do. It's only about what God can do. Only He can change hearts. Only He can blow on the lives of people. "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit" Zech. 4:6. That's why we have to pray. That's why even when I don't feel like, we have to pray. There's no other way to see the hearts of people turn to him. It doesn't matter if it's students who have grown up in church in Houston, Texas or the people being loved on by my sweet friends in Afghanistan who are hearing about Jesus for the first time. It's ONLY by the Spirit of God. ONLY He can do it. ONLY He can "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ." ONLY He can cause the blinded to see and the deaf to hear and the dead to live again. We were all dead in our sins before Christ. Obviously, students living here have infinitely greater opportunity to hear and respond to the gospel. Yes, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But alas, here or there, it's the same power of God that brings people to Him. Yep, it doesn't take any more power to raise a dead person to life in one place than in another place. He can do it. He wants to. He will do it. He LOVES TO DO IT. He wants it more than we do. So, why do I worry? I don't need to fret at why He's not doing it when and how I want Him to. Why do I doubt Him? He's GOING TO ACCOMPLISH HIS PURPOSE. He just is. Yes, I have to share truth, and yes, I have to pray a ton. But that's just so there's no doubt about it. He's the One that's gonna do it. Not me, not you, not us, not our good ideas, not our programs, not our strategies. He's the fount. He's the source. Just Him. His way. His time. His power. His plan. His glory. period.

1 comment:

Kim for the Kings said...

I love your heart...reading your posting made me really really really miss living with you and the times I'd get to see this part of your heart (daily) lived out. Love you and miss you, Rebekah ablam.