Does the spiritual state of your city distress you? Does the fact that so many of the people in your apartment building/neighborhood/school provoke your spirit? If not then it’s little surprise that we aren’t seeing more people come to Christ. If we’re not emotionally engaged in the plight of the lost, it’s unlikely that we’ll be engaged at all.
As the five year anniversary of Threshingfloor has come and gone I’ve been spending quite a bit of time thinking back to those first couple years. If I’m honest I believe that my passion for seeing people come to know Jesus has being dampened by the menial week-by-week work of “ministry” and keeping something simply running. I use quotation marks around ministry there because it’s so easy to get caught up in the logistics and habits of a program or practice and lose track of God’s true heart.
Acts 17:16 records that when the Apostle Paul was staying in the city of Athens “his spirit was provoked within him” when he saw that the people of the city were giving their lives to idols. So provoked that he headed to the public gathering place and started evangelizing, discussing, and reasoning with whoever would talk with him about the Gospel, Jesus, and the resurrection.
My friends, are our hearts provoked within us when we see the people around us sacrificing their lives to the idols of success, sexual pleasure, comfort, and a thousand others? Does seeing people held captive by addictions, lies, and satanic influences cause a righteous anger to rise within us against the gods of this world who have bound those people? Do our hearts fill with sorrow at the sight of someone disconnected from their loving Creator?
As much as we like to ignore it, we are very often led by our emotions and desires. Our mind is incredibly skilled at creating “logical” reasons why we should have what we want. Without our emotions engaged in something it inevitably becomes a back-burner, easily forgotten object.
When our hearts don’t feel the provocation that Paul felt in Athens evangelism is more of an obligation than a passion. Disciple making becomes a “ministry” rather than a joyful way of living.
Let’s set aside – for a moment – the demands of logic and let God engage our hearts fully.
Will you join me in praying, for the next seven days, that God would align our emotions with his towards the lost? I want my spirit to be provoked within me at the sight of people who need Christ. I want that provocation to be the catalyst to my action of laying down my life in love and boldly declaring Christ’s offer of salvation to any and all who will hear – from neighbor to co-worker to stranger.
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