Motives

We had a wonderful Lord's day together with our church family yesterday. There was a special speaker there; Preston and Abi Smith, missionaries going to Japan. Preston shared his deep burden for the people of Japan. When he preached he started in the book of Jonah. Jonah was called to go to Nineveh but he went directly the opposite way. We know the account. God had a great fish prepared to swallow up Jonah, change his mind and vomit him out on dry land. Jonah then went to preach to the people of Nineveh but with a wrong motive. When the people repented, Jonah was angry and displeased.  Mr Smith then shared the burden of Paul's heart for his people; that he would be willing to be accursed if only the people he preached to would come to know the Lord. What a different heart and motive Paul had! He also compared Paul to Moses, who also said that he would be willing to be blotted out of God's book to see his people turn to the Lord! It was a blessing and blow to my heart. What is my attitude toward the unsaved all around me? Nowhere in the New Testament has God commanded me to want to be accursed or blotted out of God's book of life, but do I care about people even half that much? The example of Paul and Moses' motives were those that I pray that I will have in my heart as I learn to love the Lord with ALL and draw closer to Him daily. Unfortunately, sometimes I have the attitude of Jonah, unwilling to even share a tract or tell someone about the wonderful Lord Jesus; out of fear or perhaps because I am too busy! At those times it is as if I do not want people to turn to the Lord. As brother Smith also shared; I know we all want others to be reconciled to God through His Son, but do our actions always show it?  It was like a sword, piercing into my heart. I would thank any of you who would pay for me toward allowing the Lord to change this in me.

"The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water." John 4:14