I left our team in Williamsburg today because I had to get back to Paducah. Having 6 hours alone in the car provided plenty of time to think and pray.
With H4W fresh on my mind, I was reminded of Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:21—“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
What I treasure shows the direction and location of my heart.
We have been praying this week that God would give us his heart for the world. We have been praying that we would love what he loves and that we would feel what he feels about the people of this world.
Driving home today, I couldn’t help but think about the fact that I pastor a people who are wealthy. Among American standards, the people of FBC Paducah are wealthy. Among world standards, we are all wealthy. I know of no one who is a part of our church who does not have food, clothing, and shelter. Needless to say, we are all rich.
The quickest way to check someone’s heart is to look at their stuff. Walk in anyone’s house, and while you will quickly see stuff, what you really see is a deep reflection of their hearts. Look at the stuff in their lives. Look at how much stuff is in their lives. Listen to the stuff that comes out of their mouths. Look at the stuff they spend their money on.
I want God’s heart. I want to feel the way he does about all things—especially the people of the world.
I also want to be around people who want God’s heart. I want to be around people like I have been around this week—people who take their entire families on mission trips—people who instead of heading to ThrillMeWorld take a week’s vacation to be a part of H4W week—people who are more interested in what God is about than anything else.
It’s great to be a part of a people who want God’s heart. We’ve got friends who are trying to figure out how they can spend less money on themselves so they can participate more in what God is doing. I know of a couple who sacrificially gave a large chunk of change to another couple who is wanting to adopt a child. How great it is to hear the young man talk of how he is not going to upgrade his car just because he can—instead he is choosing to give that money away to someone who is in need.
Only God could lead folks to do things like that and these are the kinds of things that I am seeing among our family of faith.
Driving home today, I had the thought: Heart for the World is not a week—Heart for the World is a lifestyle. May our hearts for the world be seen not just in our feverish participations in multiple projects in Williamsburg or Paducah, or even Honduras or Romania or the Ukraine. Instead, may our hearts for the world be seen in the everyday occurrences of our lives—the way we talk to one another, the way we spend our money, the way we treat our family, the way we pray, the way we treat the poor, and the list goes on and on and on and on.
I’m coming off this week convinced more than ever that H4W is what God is about and that H4W is the way of life God intended for all his followers.
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