There’s an old Keith Green song (he of ‘There is a Redeemer’ fame) that sums it up for me again and again:
My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me
But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood
You’ll find it on YouTube somewhere, I’m sure.
There’s nothing so demotivating than a hard heart. A heart that is not moved with love and compassion is a heart that will not take you beyond your own comfort. I am speaking here as an absolute expert in this. I allow my own pains to prevent me from entering into the lives of others, and my own desire for peace and comfort to prevent me from going the extra mile. I don’t often want to go an extra step, let alone an extra mile. I suspect I’m not alone.
This is particularly the case in the call to make disciples – to get out and stuck in to the messy lives of others with open-hearted desire to impart something of the gift of God through the help of his Spirit already at work ‘out there’. There is such a cost, though, to the reluctance. Not for me, but for the community around me to which I am sent. There is a weight and burden in the lives of those outside of the gospel that I am often so reluctant to bear and so they suffer without the light of the gospel.
So, all I can do is I drag my cold heart close to the fire of God’s love. This is also where the Christian community needs to spur each other on and help keep each other honest and open before the Lord. We need to ask the difficult questions about heart issues, passion issues, devotion issues, holiness issues, surrender issues.
How can we encourage each other to live fully for Jesus for the gospel? Can only start on our knees before our Father.
Andrew S M Clark 