Let our hearts be hungry
Love Help Teach Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 05:12AM By Alicia Jones
I know life is more than having and not having. I understand that poverty exists. I believe God blesses the poor with rich faith. But still, I feel there is such a great disparity between the world of the poor and the world of the rich.
A Roma home for six people.
A home in downtown Munkács
How can I report what I have experienced in my first two months living in Ukraine? My Roma friends ask me for simple things. One asks for a pair of shoes. Another asks me to teach her English. One women asks for $100 to buy medicine for a lump in her chest. She even shows me the x-ray from the hospital.
Some young girls keep begging me to visit them or they ask if they can visit me. One woman asks me to help start a kindergarten in her village. A weary couple just asks for a quiet and dry place to rest for a few minutes after bringing their sick child to town to see the doctor.
As I pray for wisdom from God as to how to respond to every request, I become more and more hungry myself. I begin to ask fervently for his kingdom to come. My heart longs for the day when “the ransomed of the LORD will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee” (Isaiah 35:10).
I look around at these scenes and just know that the disparity should not be, it is a result of human sin. I hold to the hope that the great signing and sorrow that my Roma friends face will one day be fully replaced with joy and gladness. Even now, they come to their churches with singing and for a moment I can see on their heads crowns of unending joy. And I praise God that no matter how much you have or don’t have He will give you a crown of unending joy if you hunger for Him.
Reader Comments (2)
Dearests Alicia: How well I remember those days when I firsts encountered the third world misery. It is painful to the depths of the soul. It will probably never pass away completely. You will begin to see that the abundant life Jesus promised those who are His Own does not depend on the abundance of things we have, but on the eternal hope that lives within and the fellowship with Him and with brothers and sisters who also live by faith and that eternal hope.
You will be able to help many along the way. Many are beyond your physical ability to help. You will begin to see that a loving heart and an attentive ear will go far toward easing the sorrow of those who need to share their pain with someone who really cares. You will find that your prayer and friendly word because you are an apostle will cast out demons and heal the sick. It will be a delight for you to see the Book of Acts happen again! As you deal with a sinsick world around you, you will notice that you are a light in darkness and others will praise and bless God because of you. Do all things for the Glory of God in Jesus Name.
Don't you know how the heart of Jesus must have ached for the people he encountered during his earthly ministry?! Regardless of their social status or earthly trappings, his desire for each one was to touch their hearts with the truth...and that is still his heart's desire. How humbling it is to know that he uses us to reach out to others with his message of hope, salvation and eternal blessings. You're in my thoughts and prayers each day as you observe the many needs and pray about and act upon those which God impresses on your heart in a personal way. You hold in your heart the key to all the riches of eternity in Heaven with Almighty God. May God give you all that you need to touch the hearts and lives of the poor around you so that they, too, might receive life abundant from Him!