A New Year's Compassion

Here we are in the year of our Lord 2011. On New Year's Eve night I decided to celebrate and welcome in the new year by being in God's presence.  My church has a watch night service every New Year's Eve, and I knew this was the best place for me to be.  There are so many things I'm expecting from God, I just felt like I needed to take a more aggressive position toward what I wanted.   

One of the ways we celebrate at our church is by giving testimonies of what God has done over the past year. I love my pastor who makes it plain, "please only give your highlights and not every detail."  Being that we're only gonna be there until midnight, some people can shut the place down with their whole life story.

The first group who came forth were the youth. I could hear and see God moving through those children. It was as if God was painting a picture while telling a story.  There were several people who shared the good things as well as the troubles they were still believing God to move upon.  

While sitting and listening my heart was so overwhelmed I was moved to tears. It really doesn't take much for me to cry anyway, but this was different. My heart was breaking for these families. I could see so many needs that it became extremely overwhelming for me. So much so, continuing on into the next day. I was still crying for those people. I began to cry out to GOD  for these hurting people. Then it dawned on me, that's what Jesus did. Jesus was moved with compassion for us; all the way to the cross. He was touched with the feelings of our infirmities.  God was reminding me of how He felt my pain and only wanted me free.

Recently, I've been dealing with the process of letting go and I wasn't happy about it at all. But God. Once I finally said yes and decided to trust God, the Lord removed the weight I was carrying.  I was so distracted with what I may or may not have to do, I was beginning to toil.  All God wanted me to do was just ask, believe, and receive.

Anyway, that night I left everything I was toiling over at the alter. Now I'm just expecting.  God reminded me of how much He really loves me and wants to give me the desires of my heart. God wanted me to feel what was in His heart, so that I could better understand that He felt what was in mine. God is a loving and caring Father for us, not a task master.  

In John 15:7 Jesus said "If you abide in me and my word abide in you, you can ask ANYTHING and it shall be done for you."   

On that note, I'm just abiding and expecting.