One thing that Larry Stockstill said in the previously mentioned message is that at the core of Christianity there needs to be a strong burden for the lost. He put it this way (speaking to pastors)...
"Don't spend time discipling a leader unless they bleed for your city."
His point was that the burden is the thing that drives us to prayer, fasting, action, and results.
I found this scripture really hit home this morning...
"So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven." Nehemiah 1:4 For a long time I've thought that a burden for the lost must be a sovereign move of God on your heart. But if it was up to God to move on us we'd see a whole lot more burdened Christians around. I believe there is a responsibility on our part to cultivate our hearts to receive God's burden for His lost sheep.
Nehemiah had a heart that was ready to receive the burden from the Lord. The broken down wall in Jerusalem wasn't new news...it had been that way for 180 years!! I believe he already knew that facts about his homeland but that he had not yet received the burden God had for him...until that day in chapter 1. And the burden led to prayer and fasting. The prayer and fasting led to favor and action. Before you know it a whole culture was being transformed by a man with a burden and a vision.
So what can we do to cultivate a heart that is ready to receive a burden from the Lord?
- Pray for the lost
- Spend more time with lost people
- Ask the Lord for compassion and mercy
- Ask the Lord to make our heart like His heart - "God, I want to feel the way you feel..."
- Remember the kind of life that God saved you out of
- ???
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