The Heart of God

What is the heart of God?

I don’t know any scripture that expresses the heart of God better than 1 Timothy 2:1-4. I read it, perhaps, more than any other scripture when I preach.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (ESV).

So, what is God saying here?

The scripture is pretty straight forward. He is saying His desire is that all people everywhere would be saved and to understand the truth . . . His truth.

When I was a young man, just about a year after I had myself, been saved, surrendering to God and accepting the salvation that is in Christ, I prayed an innocent prayer. I prayed, “God, show me how You feel about the lost.”

That simple prayer turned my life upside down. All of a sudden, I saw people as God must see them . . . lost and on a path to an eternal hell. If people reject Christ’s death on the cross and His salvation to “whosoever will,” He cannot stop their journey to hell. He won’t, because He will not violate their power to choose what they are going to do in life. People reject Jesus and His supreme sacrifice for sins on the cross because they like their sin too much and don’t want to change. They don’t want to live righteously, or they feel that they can’t.

Now, after this prayer, I saw people as lost and on their way to hell. Everywhere I went I was obsessed with the awareness that I had to tell them they could have salvation in Christ if they were willing to repent, accept it, and change their direction.

There was great sorrow in my heart for the masses living an unregenerate life in the clutches of sin. It gripped me to the extent that I could hardly function in life at all. I was so preoccupied with the plight of the lost that my mother wondered out loud what was wrong with me.

Being a painfully shy young man, it was terrifying to approach people and open a conversation about their eternal destiny. During that time I did, however, lead a couple people to salvation. On a trip to Iowa to visit a friend I would drive by farmhouses lit by a single yard light and struggle with the urge to throw myself at their door and beg them to come to Jesus.

On that trip I led a young man to Jesus at a wayside rest. He was a churchgoer and had never been told how to pray and ask Jesus into his heart. When he lifted his head from that prayer, his immediate desire was to read the Bible and he asked me where he should start.

Eventually, I asked God to take back the acute awareness of “His heart,” because I couldn’t carry it. He did, but I never forgot how I felt when I was carrying His heart in that way.

God was merciful, and eventually He opened the way for me to do outreach events in which about 3000 people came to Christ.

As I have stated before many times, Charles Finney, often referred to as America’s most successful evangelist, believed that we are here on this earth for one reason, to lead sinners to salvation in Christ. He said it should be the main occupation of all Christians. I have also stated many times that perhaps three percent of Christians living now, have ever led someone to Jesus. If every believer would lead one person to Christ each year and mentor that person in personal growth as a Christian, we could evangelize the entire world in about 36 years.

As the world stands today, some research indicates that as many as half of the people in the world have never heard the Gospel. There are roughly 25 million in the United States who have never heard the Gospel, according to Ralph Moore in his book, How to Multiple Your Church.

We are drawing near to an election, the impact of which will shape our country’s future, perhaps permanently. Forty percent of evangelicals are not registered to vote. This forty percent could determine the outcome of the election. The apathy of evangelical Christians is staggering. Apparently, they are so immersed in the details of life that they will not event bother to vote.

We have an obligation to vote morality, and that should tell the whole story. How can an individual vote the opposite of God’s moral principles plainly laid out in scripture and still claim to know Christ? That vote would indicate the person is either deceived or is listening to voices other than the voice of God that speaks from the pages of the Bible. It is mind-boggling and tragic.

As the election draws near, I beg of you to search your heart in God’s presence how you should cast your vote. Our country’s future depends on it.

If you do that, you will be one step ahead in your Christian walk.

Photo designed and taken by Lorraine