What Breaks Your Heart?
Whenever you read leadership books and they talk about vision almost every single book says your vision is intertwined with what breaks your heart. The author always asks “what breaks your heart?” What do you see in your life and in the world that makes your heart cry?
Ever since I heard that years ago I would always ask myself, “I wonder what breaks my heart?” Through praying and processing the inclinations of my heart I have come to realize there are a few things that break my heart. Personally for me, when I see people on the mission field who do not have access to the gospel, or when I see church pastors and leaders who are not consumed with the love of God my heart breaks.
But yesterday during worship all of a sudden I started to cry as I was singing to the Lord. At that moment I searched my heart and came to a very personal realization between me and the Lord. The root of all my passions and desires comes from wanting people to know Jesus.
When I sing to the Lord or when I seek His face and I encounter Him, there is always this voice in my heart that says there are people out there who don’t know this reality that you know. It grips, tears and breaks my heart. When I think about how amazing and worthy Jesus is but simultaneously think about all that people out who haven't experienced His love, it does something in the deepest places of my being.
So after service, as my wife and I were talking I told her I think I finally found out what breaks my heart. I told her, “I realized today my heart for missions, my heart for church planting, my heart for leaders and pastors is actually a result of me wanting people to know Jesus. The one thing that truly breaks my heart is people not knowing Jesus.”
Her response caught me off guard. She said, “Isn’t that supposed to break every Christian’s heart? That’s the reason why I do everything I do. I want people to know Jesus.” I felt like my special moment with Jesus was hijacked by my wife. Haha. I thought my revelation was something special and unique to me but it was as if she knew this all along.
“Isn’t that supposed to break every Christian’s heart? That’s the reason why I do everything I do. I want people to know Jesus.”
And we got into this deep conversation about how Christians are supposed to live their lives. She kept saying I think the motivation for every single Christian should be for people to know Jesus. And my heart started to agree with her more and more. Every single Christian should have a broken heart for those who don’t know Christ. But we concluded that some people know they should have a broken heart for people and others actually have a broken heart for people. We also concluded that while every Christian should have a broken heart for those who don’t know Christ, the way it is expressed is different for everyone. Depending on their callings, gifts and experiences it will be expressed in different ways.
Whenever I am in God's presence and He allows me to taste a glimpse of His true glory my automatic response is similar to Roman 9:1-4 confession. "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises." That's what happens when someone truly tastes of God's glory. Creation responds to Creator, "I want to share your goodness, share your love with the entire world!" Isaiah had a very similar response to that of Apostle Paul in Isaiah 6:8, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" So my wife was right. This isn't something unique to me. This is something that every single Christian should break over. This is something that should grip every single one of us.
I am praying this morning that God would start with you and me. I am praying that God would grip our hearts for those who don’t know Christ. I am praying that the heart of Jesus will begin to beat against our hearts and bring a consuming love for those who don’t yet know Him. I am praying for a Romans 9 heart so that Jesus can get the praise He is worthy of.