Break Our Hearts, Lord

On the ride home from church this morning, a song came on the radio; Jesus, Friend of Sinners by Casting Crowns. ( Listen here ) It’s an excellent song and I’ve loved it since I first heard it. However, today one line stuck out to me that I’ve always blown over, probably because I’ve heard it a million times in a million songs. But it is so relevant.

Break our hearts for what breaks Yours.

Think on that for a minute. How often do we think on what breaks God’s heart? And more than that, how often do our own hearts break for those things?

There are so many things that should break our hearts. The persecution of our brothers and sisters in other countries, the hurting souls around us, the people who have no access to the Bible and will live and die with never hearing the Word. I could go on and on.

The bottom line is that our hearts should break for the people around us. How often do we even think about them? Do we think about that person sitting next to us at work or in class that doesn’t know Christ and who is dying inside?

We have very limited time on this earth, and we need to think about how we are using it. Most of us, myself included, use most of our time just to cruise through life and do things all for ourselves. And it doesn’t even cross our minds that we are surrounded by broken people that we could help. We need to pay attention to the world around us and actually see it, see beyond the surface.

If we actually take the time to see people, it can hurt. It can be overwhelming to look at the state of the world, and it truly can break your heart. But the problem is that, even after we have seen this, we do nothing. We hurt, we may cry and pray, but we don’t reach out.

How are people supposed to hear the Word and see the love of Christ if no one will tell them? Prayer is important and we should be praying constantly for someone to be reaching to these people, but we also need to be listening for God’s response and be ready to be obedient, because that someone could be us.

That is a frightening thought, to live our faith. But it is what we are called to do. Here in America, the Church has become so complacent. It’s become a world of compromise that tries to make itself look good to the culture around us.

That is not what we are called to be. It says multiple times that because we live for Christ we will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12; John 15:20). It also tells us in John 15:19 that we are no of this world. We are supposed to be different and stand out. It tells us that we will wrestle with the rulers and authorities of this world (Ephesians 6:12).

If we are really living for God and not ashamed of it, we can’t expect it to be easy. Look at how it is for some of our brothers and sisters in other countries; they are killed simply because they believe in Christ’s name. Yet here, we are afraid to be made fun of by our peers?

Maybe it is time to take a look at our lives and rethink how we are living. It’s time to be obedient to Christ as we are called to, and to be willing to be different.

You never know if or when God may call you to do something radical for Him. Maybe He’ll tell you to move to the inner city and do ministry there. Maybe He will ask you to become a missionary and go to completely unreached people groups and learn their languages and tell them the Gospel.

There potential circumstances may seem to be far too extreme for you. You may be saying, “God will send someone else. He’d never ask me. I don’t have that type of skill.” But we are told that God will use the weak to shame the strong (1 Corinthians 1:27). It’s not about us. It’s about what He can do through us.

We never know what God is going to call us to do.

My point is that we need to see the world through God’s eyes. We need to see the needs of the people around us and then do something about it. We need to be obedient to what He is telling us.

An important side note- We won’t obey perfectly 100% of the time, and the more we obey, the more opposition we will face as times goes on. It won’t be easy, and we will fall. However, God calls us to obedience, not perfection. He knows we will fall, and He will be right there by our sides to pick us back up.

So take some time and look around to actually see the world. What you realize may be shocking, but God can use that to change your life, and then use you to change the lives of those people whose lives break your heart.