Heart Tracks - Caring For His Heart

"One day, as these men were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Dedicate Barnabas and Saul for the special work to which I have called them.' " Acts 13:2....."As far as we can tell, they had nothing on their 'to-do' list other than caring for God's heart....Sometimes, the key to hearing God's voice is to take a break from seeking it....Those who seek His heart will discover what's truly on it." Chris Tiegreen

As I read the above words from Tiegreen, I was struck with what is so often missing from our prayer lives; the concept of ministering to, caring for the heart of the Father. As I look back upon my own prayer life, I can see how so little of it has ever been concerned with caring for His heart. I want Him to minister to me. I've rarely seen any part of it as ministering to Him. How about you?

The wonderful voice of the Jesus movement, Keith Green, had a lyric in one of his songs where the Father laments the prayer life of His people; "Bless me Lord, bless me Lord, that's all I ever hear." How honest can we be that the majority of what He hears from us is much the same? How much time do we spend seeking His comfort, His healing, His intervention into our impossible situations? How much of our crying out to Him is really nothing more than our saying, "Bless me Lord?" When was the last time we came to our "prayer closet" with the sole idea of ministering to Him, of caring for His heart? Do we know anything of what that is?

We all know that God longs for relationship with us. We see that in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ, but just what does relationship with Him mean? So much of our prayer is outcome/results oriented. We have an answer, a result that we're focused on reaching. We spend a lot of time talking to Him about that. We're interested in securing His help, His strength, His miracle working power. We want to take hold of His hands of power. He desires that we take hold of His heart of life. We can spend a lot of time in His presence seeking answers, and yet not experience His Presence at all. We've made Him well aware of what we desire but remain clueless not only of what He desires, but too often, of who He is.

I'm not saying that we're not to make our requests known to Him. His Word says that we're to do just that, but more and more I'm realizing that so much of what I desire for Him to do, gets done as I just seek to dwell in His Presence. As I do that, I find that many of those desires were not deep ones at all, and He reveals a deeper desire within me that those lesser ones had hidden. I start to realize the reality of His promise that if I seek first His Kingdom, which is found in His heart, than all "these things" will be taken care of as well. The true and full ministry of the Father to us is found in His heart caring for ours. Our ministry to Him is the same. Isn't it time we entered into that?

We encourage people to "find their ministry," and that's good. We've neglected teaching that all ministry begins with our ministry and care for His heart. Everything else flows from that. Has this ministry begun with you and me? isn't it time that it did?

Blessings,
Pastor O