Having Our Hearts Stirred by God
There is a law called the law of inertia. It is Newton's first Law of Motion. Simply stated, it says that an object at rest will remain at rest, unless it is acted upon by an outside force, and an object in motion will remain in motion, unless acted upon by some outside force. I have observed that this is true of people, too. When we are doing nothing, it takes something or someone to give us a push to get us going.
When King Cyrus of Persia took over the kingdom from the Babylonians, he gave the Israelites the permission to go back to Jerusalem after being in exile in Babylon for 70 years. (Ezra 1:5) "Then, God stirred the hearts of the priests and the Levites and the leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to go to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple of the Lord." God stirred their hearts to action, and God is still in the business of stirring hearts today.
We are saved from our sins to serve the Lord for the rest of our lives. We are not saved just to sit in a pew and listen to sermons. God gives every believer gifts from the Holy Spirit when we are saved. He means for us to listen to Him and to put those gifts into action for the good of the church family and for the upbuilding of His kingdom. I am afraid many Christians resist the stirring of the Lord, or they are just not listening to Him, because they remain stuck in their pew.
My prayer today is for all of us to ask God to stir our hearts. I pray we will take time to stop and assess what we are doing and what we are not doing. Are we doing what we want to do because it is appealing to us, or are we doing what God has gifted us and called us to do? Are we doing too much or are we doing the right amount because we are doing what God has stirred us to do, not other things we have added. I believe God doesn't want anyone to be overloaded. Remember, Jesus was never in a hurry, and He accomplished more than all of us. Let's depend on God to stir our hearts and then be faithful.
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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezra 3-5.