Take It to Heart…Sound Familiar?
As you’ve listened to Pete Alwinson over the years, you know it’s the final encouragement he gives whenever he speaks…But what does it look like to “take it to heart?” Pete would say, “It’s going deeper than what we are thinking to how do we feel, what are our desires, and what kind of action will we take.”
Recently I was involved in some leadership training in which the focus for a period of that training was how do we get to our heart as well as others’ hearts as we consider important things going on in our lives. In one of my DAWGs this week, I sensed the Holy Spirit leading me, as I read Matthew 9, to use some tools I had learned from the leadership training that might help me “take it to heart.” I began by simply asking the Holy Spirit to speak to me through these verses in such a way I would think and feel more deeply. After reading these verses, I ask myself four questions.
Jesus went through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited, harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Matthew 9:35-38
What are you thinking…
There seems to be three clear divisions in these verses,
-What Jesus was doing
-How He felt as He was around these people
-What He wanted His disciples to take away from how He lived His life.
The thing I thought about the most was “Seeing the people, He felt…” What kind of feelings do I have for “people” and how do I “see” them were questions I ask myself.
What are you feeling…
First thing I’m feeling is that I don’t like the idea of feelings. I’m not sure why my mind works this way, I guess I’m a little distrusting of my feelings. But God reminded me that our emotions are a gift from him to be used to allow us to get to the Heart of life’s issues. I was energized and encouraged to see what Jesus was up to. I was surprised to hear how he described the people He saw. I was curious to see how God was going to lead me.
What desires are touched in you…
My desires were that I would see my neighbors, the people that God brings into my life, with less judgment. Jesus saw them as distressed, dispirited, harassed and helpless. I too often see them as a problem that maybe I can fix.
My desire would be that I would see the world around me as Jesus sees it…that so many people are seeking to find satisfaction for life and, as followers of Christ, we know where it is found…that followers of Christ in this city would be encouraged to be laborers knowing the harvest is plentiful. My desire would be that I would be more bold and more intentional to be one of His harvest laborers.
What choices do you want to make…
I want to be more intentional to pray on a regular basis for God to send me and others in this city out into His Harvest. I want to slow down more as I am “moving through the cities and villages,” the places where God has placed me, so that I might “see” people as helpless and harassed in a way that I would move towards them to minister rather than observe and judge.
I then took time to respond in prayer this way…
Dear God, thank You for Your Word. Thank You that I can see how Jesus was at work, how He saw and felt for those He was around, and how He challenged His disciples to pray. I thank You that just as Jesus was speaking to His disciples, You, Holy Spirit, are speaking to me and other followers of Christ with both challenge and encouragement about what it would look like to be laborers for you. I thank you that before you ask us to labor you call us to pray and I thank you for the reminder and reality that the harvest is plentiful! Help me to see those people you bring into my life the way Jesus saw them and have the boldness and wisdom to shepherd them.
So here’s my challenge for you as a FORGE Man… Maybe take the same verses and in your DAWG time, ask yourself the same questions. Maybe it means as you are in your DAWG, God prompts your heart to slow down over a particular section of scripture and ask these questions. I know that God can use these simple but specific questions to help us move beyond the surface to go deeper, closer to our heart.
Taking it to Heart with you…Kelley
