[WISDOM] and a [PURE HEART]

Dave Martin spoke on the importance of gaining wisdom, asking God for favor, and giving generously (not just of your money but of your time, your talents, your life).

It was incredible.

The Holy Spirit was moving greatly throughout the room.  A call for prayer left most seats empty.

The prayer was for a breakthrough of favor in our lives.

Normally I would have been praying for a financial breakthrough, but my heart is changing.  I actually value wisdom and purity above any kind of financial relief, and believe me, I could use some relief financially.

“God, I seek wisdom and a pure heart!!!”

See, when you sit with a family of 9 orphans, their parents graves 15 feet away from you, something changes.  When you are in danger of losing a friend to a crooked and cruel police, knowing she may not return, something changes.  When you hear stories of human trafficking and the sex trade, something changes.  You don’t realize it in the moment, but you are wrecked for life.

I’ve been asking God to ‘get to me’.

I want to give my life to see ‘His Kingdom come and His will be done on this earth as it is in heaven’, and with so much going on in the world its important to me that my life has the greatest possible impact.  I know wisdom and pure motives are important for the journey ahead.

So I am asking God questions.  I am ready for Him to be completely honest with me.  I want Him to show me if my dreams are selfish.  I want Him to correct me if I am being lazy, or living for myself.  If I waste my life I am wasting theirs.

“I don’t know the suffering of people outside my front door

I join the oppressors of those who I choose to ignore

I’m trading comfort for human life

and that’s not just murder it’s suicide

and this too shall be made right”

(Derek Webb, This Too Shall Be Made Right)

So the prayer at church yesterday night was for a breakthrough in 24 hours.  I asked specifically for a breakthrough of wisdom and purity.  Tonight as I write this I am in the middle of the movie ‘The Pianist’, a film about a famous Polish pianist named Wladyslaw Szpilman in the throes of the Holocaust.  There is so much to learn from history, and here I am less than 24 hours from that prayer gaining wisdom and purity through a film.

The terror is shocking in the film.  I asked God if something like that could happen in the near future.  He said “Its happening now”.  I asked Him where, and He said “The Congo”.

I’ll warn you this is not for the faint of heart.  I could hardly stand to read it.

__________

As I was writing this a close friend called.  He had come from a beautiful worship service and the Spirit was moving through him powerfully.  He began to speak to me and pray for me about the Father’s love, and rest.

More and more I realize that I am in the midst of great tension.  Allowing myself to process all that I’ve experienced and mourn what is happening in the world, but also allowing myself to simply be loved by God, worship Him, and experience rest.

In writing this I know that more than ever it is important for me to find balance.

Balance between being wrecked and being loved.

Balance between work and rest.

Balance between living sacrificially and receiving God’s blessings.

Balance.

My prayer for all of us is that God grant us the grace to live a wise, pure and balanced life, in the midst of war and injustice and genocide.  May we be hope bringers.  I heard once that the people who have the most hope have the most influence.  Lets influence this world with the HOPE of Jesus Christ!