MATTHEW 9:36 – When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
THEME OF THE DAY. HAVING THE EYES AND HEART OF JESUS. It will cost you. It will keep you awake at night. It will wear down your soul. It will make your heart heavy. It will drive you to tears. It will send you to seasons of agonizing prayer. It will move you to sacrificial service. And it will also be one of the most affirming pieces of evidence your profession of faith in Christ is real. It is loving people. It is having the heart of Christ toward people. It is learning to put the interests of others ahead of your own, living under the control of Christ’s love, and putting all that into actions to serve hurting and needy people (2 Corinthians 5:14). But having the eyes and heart of Jesus doesn’t just happen. Nor will it occur by faithfully reading your Bible and attending church. There is more required if we are to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” – the law of love – (Galatians 6:2). Allow me to offer two necessary things if we are going to be “Christ’s hands and feet” in a hurting world needing to see the reality of who He is through His people.
First, we must really come to grips with the truth that our lives are not our own. We don’t exist for ourselves, but for Christ. We don’t live for personal pleasure or gain, but for Christ. Once we came to Christ and experienced new birth, complete, not partial, transfer of all we are and have occurred. We were delivered from the mastery of sin, Satan, and self into the glorious freedom and ownership of the greatest Master ever – the Lord Jesus. And He gave us instruction and example that our lives are now to be lived as surrendered slaves to Him. After He washed the disciples’ feet, the Lord said, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:12-17). Pay attention to the Lord’s last words – “Blessed (happy) are you if you do them”. He didn’t say, “Blessed (happy) are you who read this in your Bible and do nothing. And we shall never have the eyes and heart of Jesus if we don’t get that our lives are not our own. We are under “new management” and new direction.
The second thing necessary to have the eyes and heart of Jesus is to seek Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls. We get the eyes and heart of Jesus by getting close to the eyes and heart of Jesus, not just doing ministry or service. To live as He did, we must be transformed into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18). This means go to His Word to behold Him. Go to prayer to encounter Him. Make knowing Christ our chief passion in life and we will get His eyes and heart. Soon, it will show – a life of seeing hurting people will emerge followed by serving hurting people – just like our Lord. And that friends is the Christian life known and lived before a needy and watching world.
PRAYER: “Father, give me eyes to see people as You and Your Son do and then move me to love them in their pain.”
QUOTE: “If God’s truth is believed and changing us, then we will find ourselves sacrificially loving and serving people”