Heart Tracks - Looking Through

"While they were at Lystra, Paul and Barnabas came upon a man with crippled feet. He had been that way from birth, so that he had never walked. He was listening as Paul preached. Paul looked directly at him, and saw that he had faith to be healed." Acts 14:8-9

A friend, remarking on the ministry of Christ, said that He could, "Look through a leper and see a man cleansed. Look through a cripple and see a man who could walk." In short, Christ was able to look beyond the outward to something within each one that told Him that there hearts were ready to receive Him. Not just what He could give them, but Christ Himself. This is seen throughout His ministry. He obviously passed many lepers, cripples, and broken people. Yet He didn't heal them all. When He sat at the well outside the Samaritan village, there had to have been others who came to it, or passed it by, but it was the woman to whom He spoke. It was because when He looked at them, He saw not only what they were, and even more than what they could be. He saw within them, even if it was just a small part, a heart that was being drawn to Him, even if they didn't fully realize who He was. He was able to look through them, as was Paul, Peter, and Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch. They had discernment of heart and sight that told them that the ones they had been brought into contact with, were ready to hear and see the Christ that the Father had brought them to. They were able to look through and "see." Are we?

This is something more than just about faith to be healed, made to walk, or be whole. In fact, it is far more about the one who gives than they who receive. It's about we who are the Body of Christ, walking in such spiritual awareness that in any situation, we, like Christ, Paul, Peter, and countless others who followed, are able to "look through" the outward appearances, and recognize hearts that are even now being drawn to Him. Jesus discerned those who could hear Him and those who could not. Paul in the midst of his preaching, could see in the eyes of that crippled man, someone who was ripe for the harvest. I believe it is the purpose of the Father, indeed, I know it is, to bring such ones before us.....consistently. Can we see them? Can we look past the outward appearance to see the heart being prepared by God? Found in the diary of one of the young girls martyred for her faith at Columbine was the simple prayer, "Father, please put me in the path of brokenhearted people today." Dare we pray such a prayer?

To see, discern, and minister as did Jesus, Paul, and so many others throughout the ages will require a radical change in how we live and see. We in the church are so in love with our "selfie" lifestyles that we rarely see anything but ourselves and our concerns. From time to time we make resolutions to change, but we never resolve the problem. To enter into such a life requires a heart that longs to enter fully into His life. That yearns to see and discern as He did and does. Do we have such a yearning? Do we have the ability to look through? Do we have hearts that welcome His looking through them?

Jesus is constantly passing by our hearts. As He does, does He discern in us a longing for the wholeness, healing and freedom only He can give? Does He discern in a faith, a yearning for more, for all of Him that we can receive? And then, can He through us, bring us to all those whose hearts are being drawn to Him? Or, will He just pass by today because, after all, our eyes and hearts are too clouded with "us" to be able to really see Him? Especially in the hearts and lives of those around and before us.

Blessings,
Pastor O