HOSANNA!
I never know how to put my ton of thoughts into words, especially when my ton of thoughts stems from a ton of different feelings. I suppose I can compare how I "feel" to what someone might feel when they witness the poor and starved. Imagine what a normal human being with abilities, talents, strength, stature and so on, looks like. Now consider a person who is starved and has been for a long time. There is no flesh or substance. Strength is gone and the ability to grow or even to function is stunted. Though that sight in itself is hard to grasp what is even more heart-wrenching is when food, even a feast, is in easy reach. What do we feel? Pity? Anger? Responsible? Sadness?
This past couple of months, God has actually been teaching me about really loving people as He would have me love them and what opportunities He has given for just that purpose. I'm sure I can summarise this with a song that many of you might know and which has the lyrics "Heal my heart and make it clean. Open up my eyes to the things unseen. Show me how to love like You have loved me. Break my heart for what breaks Yours. Everything I am for Your kingdon's cause, as I walk from earth into eternity."
Over this weekend, God was really teaching me to go on my knees and really pray. It's always an interesting lesson for me to learn how to cry out to God, to weep before Him for others and in that way learn to love them. I was also reading in a book about prayer, about how sometimes we take our own prayers for granted. It's so easy to talk with God and make "light" conversations but God is not concerned about our little happy life in that sense (as I recently was listening to a message by Leonard Ravenhill) he is concerned about our growth and maturity and that of others. If we have the same heart as Christ, I believe tears will be shed at such a pathetic sight as that of a starved child in reach of a feast. We don't simply cry for the sake of crying or because we feel sad but we cry to an all-powerful, all-loving God who, hopefully through us, can make a difference. It is the spirit that moves us into action. There's another song. 'God of Justice' or 'We Must Go' written by Tim Highes with lyrics "We must go live to feed the hungry, stand beside the broken. We must go. Stepping forwards, keep us from just singing, move us into action. We must go... fill us up and sent us out..." Over the weekend, we also talked about the songs we were singing and how challenging they really were. "This is the air I breathe.. Your holy presence living in me. This is my daily bread...Your very word spoken to me" If these songs were a reality and we were fed daily with such bread that gives such life, surely we would not be starved.
It WAS, OF COURSE, terribly exciting to see appetities whetted. That first sweet taste of bread being consumed and hungers stirred. I recall my dad over the weekend using that quote, "The key to spiritual growth is spiritual appetite". Man cannot live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and I pray that we will be inspirations to others to feed themselves daily and thus live. "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." (John 17:3). Let us continue to pray for the Church and those missing out of this abundant life that we have been promised and is so accessible. Then we can sing that first song's chorus, "Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna in the Highest!" Praise the Lord indeed for all that He has done and is doing and is going to do.
Just a few prayer requests as I stop here, my dad is off to the Logos Hope this coming Thursday and will be speaking quite a lot as I have heard. Please pray for him that God will give wisdom and discernment and please also pray for those on the receiving end that God will prepare their hearts and that they will be encouraged and stirred up to continue to walk in the way worthy of their calling. I also have an exam coming up on the 27th of Novemeber. It's only 45 minutes long but has some weight for my course so I would appreciate prayer that I'll be able to understand the questions asked and remember the material. Also, if you have been praying please do continue to pray for our South East London Fellowship here. We are under-staffed and with so many people travelling all over the place, it makes it hard to keep up and affects my mum as she is one of those who stays behind.
Ooh, while it is also on my mind, my Christian Group, OCF (Overseas Christian Fellowship) is also going away this coming weekend for a spiritual retreat. I did not manage to sign up and so on in time so am missing out on that but please do pray with me for those that are going. Please pray for the speaker (I don't know who it is) and for the group leaders as well. Thanks as always for your prayers.
