“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free,” Luke 4:18 (Emphasis mine)
After reading this I realized Christ came for the poor, the prisoners, the blind, and the oppressed so they can be set free. I was once all of those things, but have been set free. Not that I don't’ need Christ on a daily basis, because I do, but it got me wondering where my heart is. If Christ’s heart longs for the poor, prisoners, blind and oppressed, then who am I longing for? Who am I proclaiming the good news to? It convicted my heart to realize that the majority of the time I am talking about Christ it is with other believers rather than with the lost. I began to look up other verses about whom Christ came for and why he came and believe it or not the pattern is very similar to the verse we just went over. Let’s take a look at some of these verses, shall we?
“On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17 (Emphasis mine)
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10 (Emphasis mine)
“The one who does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” 1 John 3:8 (Emphasis mine)
Christ’s main goal is to destroy the devil’s work. Now, I realize at times it may seem like the devil is winning the battle, but the beauty of this whole thing is that he never wins the war. If you look at the back of the book Christ wins! That is exciting news! The way He wins this war is one soul at a time, one person who is poor in spirit at a time, one prisoner at a time, one blind eye opened at a time, one oppressed spirit at a time, one lost heart at a time, and one sinner at a time. Where is my heart in all of this? Am I willing to fight the good fight of faith and go after these precious souls, or will I just be comfortable in the fact that I am “safe” in the knowledge of Jesus Christ? Am I willing to seek out the lost and hurting or do I want to stay in my comfort zone and pretend like everything is going to be fine with my neighbor, the clerk at the grocery store, my co-worker or the librarian at the public library? Where is my heart?
How about you? Where is your heart? Do you feel drawn to the lost and hurting or do they scare you and freak you out? Are you like me and would feel way more comfortable saying nothing at all because we don’t want to offend anyone. I believe we are in a day where if we don’t speak out the name of Jesus to this lost and dying world, then the rocks and trees will do it for us. And if that actually transpires, then standing before the judgment seat of Christ is going to be a miserable experience for us. Instead of “well done good and faithful servant,” we are going to hear “why didn’t you say something to the clerk in the grocery store when you could clearly recognize her hurting heart? Why didn’t you say something to your co-worker when you recognized they were having a bad day?”
I don’t mean to scare us here, but scripture clearly states we are all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account for what we did when we walked this earth. I would much rather find myself in a position that God is pleased with instead of the other end of the spectrum.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” 2 Corinthians 5:10
Heavenly Father, we plead at your feet for forgiveness for being complacent about the lost. Please place within us a burning inside our bones for the lost. Break our hearts for what breaks yours. Guard our hearts against the many excuses we come up with on a minute by minute bases for why we can’t share your love with those around us. We know that they are nothing more then lies from the enemy in the attempt to stop your kingdom from coming as it is in heaven. Jesus, birth a passion in our souls for the lost that literally consumes us if we are not seeking out the lost. Give us backbones of steel, that we will not back down in the moments of testing. We know that fear is not from you. It is just a weapon that satan uses to keep your people silent. Fill us with your loving boldness. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus Christ.