The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"Always With the Heart"
God's love within born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ leads us to do what we can, when we can, where we can, as we can, and for whom we can.
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good" (Acts 10:38).
"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).
"As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men" (Galatians 6:10).
"What can I do to help?" We ask this of our Heavenly Father first, who answers by infusing us with His attitude and demeanor of willingness. He then leads us to look for opportunity to "do good unto all," which engages our hearts, hands, and feet to serve as our Lord's means of administering His help and accompanying hope through us. "What can I do to help?" actually serves as our consecration to being the earthly expression of our Savior's heart, hands, and feet as He walks the earth in His spiritual body, the church. "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).
Sometimes, however, we don't seem to know anything we can do to be of help. We live in a generation wherein the challenges of a fallen world make themselves all too known to us. What can we do for someone far away who needs help, but for whom we possess no means to seemingly be of service? Again, we serve as our Lord's heart, hands, and feet. When we cannot engage the latter two, we can always engage the former.
"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men" (I Timothy 2:1).
While we never view prayer as a substitute for actions we can perform with our hands and feet when possible, we do realize there is something we can do even when it seems there is nothing we can do. Think of the Lord Jesus during the first thirty years of His life. During that time, it was not His Father's will to provide miraculous working such as the world had never seen before. So, was He unable to be of any benefit to the hurting, the sick, the broken, the blind, and the lame during more than 90% of His lifetime? The absurdity of such a thought makes it difficult to even suggest it. Indeed, one can only imagine the prayers our Lord prayed and the answers our Father administered during the years when He worked miraculously with His heart rather than His hands and feet. "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen" (John 21:25).
There is always something we can do. Hands and feet, "as we therefore have opportunity." The heart? We might say, "As we always have opportunity." The Spirit of the praying Christ dwells within us. He will lead us to act when we seemingly cannot act. He will lead us to pray. More importantly, our Heavenly Father will answer our prayers offered to seek help for others. We may not, and likely will not, see His answers. But we can be sure they will flow from the fount of His love, His desire to help, and the determination He forms within us to be of service with hands and feet when possible, and with the heart, always.
"I give myself unto prayer."
(Psalm 109:4)
Weekly Memory Verse
To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
(Romans 8:6)
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